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REPRESENTATIVE LIFE 



HORACE GREELEY, 



AN INTRO] 






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W YORK: 

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

G. W. CAKLETON & CO., 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



7 3 3> 



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DEDIOA-TIOIST. 



TO DR. JAMES H. M'LEAN, 

A SELF-MADE MAN, AND A CHRISTIAN CITIZEN, ONE "WHOSE 
PERSONAL, QUALITIES ARE OF THE HIGHEST TYPE 
AND WORTHY OF ESTEEM, IS THIS VOLUME, THE 
, RECORD OF A GREAT AND HEROIC SOUL, 

FAITHFULLY INSCRIBED BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



"If, on a full and final review, ray life and practice shall be found unworthy my 
principles, let due infamy be heaped on my memory; but let none be thereby led 
to distrust the principles to which I proved recreant, nor yet the ability of some to 
adorn them by a suitable lile and conversation. To unerring time be all this com- 
mitted." 

Horace Ghee let. 



"I regard Horace Greeley as the ablest, as well as the most conscientious jour- 
nalist in the North; he has outlived the ordinary period of life, but his mind is in 
the fullness of its power. It is something for the people of the rising generation 
to look upon the form and features of such a brave and daring chieftain. When 
he shall depart from among us, he will probably not leave a single peer behiud." 

Geo. D. Prentice. 



The journalists are now the true kings and clergy : henceforth historians, unless 
they are fools, must write not of Bourbon dynasties, and tudora, and hapsbnrgs ; 
but of stamped, broadsheet dynasties, and unite new successive names, according as 
this or the other able editor, or combination of able editors, gains the world's ear. 

Sartor Rcsarlus. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



FAGB 

PREFACE 7 

INTRODUCTION BY CASSITJS M. CLAY 11 

LETTER FROM HORACE GREELEY 15 

Chap. I.— FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD 17 

Chap. II.— HORACE GREELEY AND THE TRIBUNE 61 

Chap. III.— THREE MONTHS IN CONGRESS AND EUROPE 87 

Chap. IV.— THE GREELEY FARM — SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE — ACROSS 

THE CONTINENT, &c Ill 

Chap. V.— HORACE GREELEY AS AN EDITOR 225 

Chap. VI.— HORACE GREELEY AS A. POLITICIAN 289 

Chap. VII.— HORACE GREELEY AS A STATESMAN 825 

Chap. VIII.— HORACE GREELEY AS A MAN OF LETTERS 281 

Chap. IX.— HORACE GREELEY AS A REFORMER 483 

Chap. X.— HORACE GREELEY AS A SELF-MADE MAN 501 

Chap. XL— HORACE GREELEY LN THE SOUTH 504 

Chap. XII.— HENRY CLAY AND MARGARET FULLER 515 

Chap. XIIL— A PERSONAL WORD 541 

Chap. XIV.— THE LESSON OF HORACE GREELEYS LIFE 550 

GEORGE D. PRENTICE TO HORACE GREELEY. A Poem 571 



APPENDIX. 

THE NOMINATION OF HORACE GREELEY FOR PRESIDENT 513 

THE CINCINNATI PLATFORM AND LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE 575 

THE BAILING OF JEFFERSON DAVIS 578 



/ 



PREFACE. 

(AN conformity to a usual custom of explaining to the reader, 
^=* by a kind of advertisement or introduction, the reasons for 
presenting a volume to the public, with- an indication of its 
character and object, it is proper for me to state that about two 
years, or a little more, ago, I had occasion to address a letter to Hor- 
ace Greeley", at Avhich time it occurred to me, that on account of 
my high personal appreciation of his character and abilities, I would 
write something about him, at an early day. I then stated in my 
letter, my intention to do so. At that time I thought of only 
writing a newspaper article. But after considering the subject, I 
became satisfied that what I wished to write, could not be con- 
densed into the space of a lengthy newspaper article ; I therefore, 
determined to write a life of Mr. Greeley, differing in the main, 
from the usual style and character of biographical works. Hooked 
upon the task as a great one for me to undertake, for I had not 
yet done any thing in the way of writing books. But no sooner 
had I matured the plan of the life, than it occurred that many of 
Mr. Greeley's most valuable public papers, political and re- 
formatory, had either not been published at all, or had not ap- 
peared in public print in a permanent form. I therefore resolved 
to make as complete a collection of all his political papers and 
lectures, as I possibly could, and mould them into one or more 
volumes, as their number and length might require. 

The result of my work has been to add three new volumes to the 
great number of American books. And, whether I have done well 
or not, in adding to the constantly increasing number of volumes 
that are issued annually from the press of our country, I leave for 
others to decide. And, whether those whose privilege it is to crit- 
icize, will condemn or approve, I am conscious of having given to 
the public, in a substantial way, much that is valuable to those 



VTU PREFACE. 

who are earnestly and honestly in favor of the Right, and who are 
willing to encourage the generous efforts of men and women, whose 
object it is to do good, and whose life-trials and achievements, over 
adversity in its broadest and most crushing aspect, makes the self- 
made man and the moral hero, and whose life-practice conforms 
to the most exalted character. 

That they do, in a fair degree, portray to the reader, the life- 
line abilities, labor and merits, of a man, who must rank, sooner 
or later, with the great and good of the world's people, there can 
be no question. And though in their creation, the skill and the 
polish of the workman may not be greatly admired, still the ma- 
terials out of which they are made, must be regarded of a choice 
and valuable kind. Horace Greeley can only be visited and 
studied in the earnestness of his nature. His whole career has been 
a positive reality, a constant effort, to make the plans and desires 
of his life a success ; ignoring at all times the sham and base pre- 
tensions of men and society, as this record will show. Then let 
my volumes go forth to the public gaze. Let the vulgar sneer at 
them. Let the self-appointed critic tell the public of their faults. 
Even then, I shall have faith, that the wise and the good will ex- 
cuse their defects, and commend their merits. L. U. R. 




INTKODUCTICOT. 



lHATEVER may be said of aristocratic governments, 
'kingly, autocratic or mixed, it, is beyond contest that a 
republic best develops the average man ; here is the 
field for the largest growth of the masses — the highest happiness 
of the people. History is too often full of " glittering generali- 
ties," the lives of eminent men are the best teachers of youth : 
whilst the middle-aged and the old, are no less led with Pope to 
avow that " the proper study of mankind, is man." 

Not in the battle-field live or die the only heroes — all through 
the high and bye-ways of life are they found — with fortitude 
struggling against adversity, with untiring energy and brave hearts 
defying fate. 

Among living Americans, Horace Greeley holds no second place 
of civil heroes. Very aptly has he been termed the ''modern 
Franklin ;" similar in their early lives, and in their successful ca- 
reers, they were both eminent samples of true Republicanism. 

They were both poor, and dared to be, and so appeared until 
they achieved their pecuniary independence — both holding with 
Jefferson, that the debtor is a slave. The story of Franklin's 
"saw-dust pudding," was the counterpart of Greeley's "white 
coat." 

It is said that the poet, Kirk White, died of criticism ; and all 
men know the force of ridicule — but it could not touch the holier 
flame of honesty and independence, which burned ever inextin- 
guishable in the breasts of these two true men. They both sym- 
pathized with the people : and were plain and simple in their tastes 
and habits after the eyes of the world were in admiration, fixed 
upon them — preferring unostentatious charities, to the vulgar wor- 
ship of vain-glorious display. They were both eminent for gen- 
eralization in thought, and sententious in utterance, as is the case 



X INTRODUCTION. 

with the highest thinkers — and like Esop — the greatest of philos- 
ophers and humantarians, inclined to aphorisms. Poor Richard's 
almanac is said to have so influenced the whole mind of Pennsyl- 
vania, that her people rested in quiet and plenty in times of fear 
and pecuniary embarrassment which overshadowed the other col- 
onies. So in a wider field the nation now reaps the fruit of 
Greeley's precepts and example. 

Accepting the great inevitable and beneficent law of na- 
ture — works — he with a brave heart set himself to his task, and 
encouraged even others to follow his example. Journalism in this 
age is the poiver among men. Greeley's aspirations for the wid- 
est beneficence, naturally fell into, or rather sought this means of 
influence. Who can tell what vast power the New York Tribune, 
with a wider circulation than any existing journal among the poor 
of the cities and country, has had upon the destiny of this nation ! 
Other journals have flattered the vanities, and encouraged the 
prejudices, and catered to the depraved tastes, and winked at the 
crimes of men, that they might "put money in their purse." 
The Tribune, on the contrary, has been the opposite of all this — 
being ever on the side of simplicity, frugality, temperance and 
virtue in its widest sense, the press proving more powerful than 
the pulpit, for advancing a nobler civilization. As a statesman 
he is ever patriotic — studying the interests of the nation, elevat- 
ing the masses by encouraging education, agriculture and manu- 
factures, rather than commerce, which builds up luxury, and fos- 
ters aristocratic classes. 

He instinctively embraced Henry Clay's "American System," 
and since his death has been admittedly its ablest advocate. 

The writer of this notice, first saw Horace Greeley in the 
Harrisburg Convention of 1840. As he walked down the aisle 
of the convention hall with his massive head and flaxen hair thinly 
spread over his symmetrical head, I was at once struck, and knew 
him then, or to be, a man of mark. I was told on inquiry that it 
was Horace Greeley. Thirty-one years have passed, and all 
that time he has advanced in knowledge, in usefulness, and in the 
world's esteem. I have known him in the editorial room, at the 



INTRODUCTION. XJ 

home- hearth, at the farm, and in political assemblies ; and found 
him all the time true to himself — to his friends — to country — 
and to humanity. As I said before, his mind whilst full of 
facts (he is an eminent statist), is inclined to generalization. 
He has no imagination, no poetic view ; but is not deficient in dry 
humor. His charities are proverbial — I once said, " Mr. Greeley, 
do these men to whom you loan money so freely ever repay you?" 
" Well," said he " not often" — " yes, I remember, a stranger to 
whom I had loaned $5 — after a time returned it to me. So un- 
usual an occurrence excited enquiry, and I found him to be the in- 
mate of a lunatic asylum. 

As a writer, he is terse, logical and convincing — whatever he 
may do, he never says a foolish thing. As a speaker, he is utter- 
ly without culture in manner. He comes at once before his audi- 
ence without a bow or any preface of recognition, and enters at 
once upon his subject. He makes no jestures, but swings himself 
with a slight appearance of nervousness upon his feet. His voice 
is unmusical, and his enunciation monotonous, but no sensible 
man ever hears the beginning of a speech from H. Greeley, who 
does not listen to the end. No man ever gave so flat a con- 
tradiction to Demosthene's precept for oratory " action, action, 
action" — as Greeley. But another of the highest forces of 
eloquence: he has — in an eminent degree — a want of "self-concious- 
ness ;" forgetful of self, and of the audience, he feels only his 
subject, and he and they move on in unison to the end. 

His personal appearance is too well known for description. His 
face is not very expressive ; the intellect has mastered the passions, 
yet a beneficent smile makes at times his features as lovely as 
those of a woman. His head as I said, is symmetrical. His 
powers well balanced — it seems to me, have grown in size gteadily 
to this time. If extent of brain gives intellect, then is Greeley 
one of the greatest of men — certainly he has one of the largest 
of heads. It is fit that the life of such a man should be writ- 
ten, and read of. Such a man has more instruction in him than 
a hundred pulpits — more heroism than a thousand warriors. 

C. M. C. 



A. LETTER A.J=50XJT THE TRIBUNE. 



New York, Feb. 3, 1872. 

My Friend : — You ask me for some account of the New York 
Tribune ; and since the former half of my life Avas devoted to prep- 
aration for conducting such a journal, the latter half to doing that 
work, I readily respond. 

I had had some editorial experience in connection with the Neiv- 
Torker, the veiy first two-cent daily started in this city, (Jan. 1> 
1833;) next with the Constitution, a Whig penny daily, issued in 
the summer Of 1834; then with the New York Whig, a two-cent 
daily, 1836-37. I had edited-in-chief the New-Yorker, the Jeffer- 
sonian (1838,) and the Log Cabin (1840). The three last named 
were weeklies ; the first of them literary and statistical ; the others 
political campaign papers of wide circulation, and considerable 
prosperity. The Log Cabin was to have stopped when the canvass 
of 1810 closed, but its popularity proved such, that I continued it 
for a year longer. Meantime, April 10, 1841, when I was a few 
weeks more than thirty years old, I started the first daily that had 
ever hcen Avholly my own, the New York Tribune. It was a penny 
paper, and of course, small. It had no subscription list worth 
speaking of, no advertisements ; and I was unable to buy a power- 
press, much less presses. I had been between eight and nine years 
at work for myself in this city, and was probably worth $2,000, 
though that is a liberal estimate. I had no partner, little credit* 
and no powerful backing. I had some promises of help which were 
not fulfilled ; one friend alone lent me $1,000, from time to time, as 
I needed it, and waited a year for its repayment. Of those who 
helped me issue the first number, two are still in the concern, and 
are stockholders in the Tribune Association. Mr. Henry J. Ray- 
mond, my editorial lieutenant, left me some three years afterwards 
and died editor of the Times, in 1869. Mr. Thomas McElrath, 
who became my partner four or five months after the Tribune was 
first issued, was the publisher. I printed five thousand of the first 
issue, and sold perhaps two thousand of them ; the rest I gave 
away. When the first week closed, my receipts had been $92 ; my 
current expenses, $525. But my circulation grew steadily and 
rapidly ; advertisements gradually came in. I started the weekly 
Tribune in the autumn ; the semi-weekly next year, when I believed 
that the concern was paying its way. 



16 A LETTER ABOUT THE TKIEuTTE. 

In November, 1844, at the close of the canvass which should have 
made Henry Clay our President, I had a sale for fifteen thousand 
copies of the daily ('ere this time raised to two cents per copy) » 
my weekly sold to the extent of fifty thousand copies, but part of 
this was a campaign circulation, which now fell off. Thence, the 
Tribune was made better and better, and grew in favor with the 
public, though its circulation often stood still for months, and at 
times even retrograded. The presidential struggle of 1860, carried 
weekly circulation up (of course, for the campaign only,) to two 
hundred and fourteen thousand, but it fell off heavily after that 
campaign Avas ended, and I expected that this would, for years, be 
registered and discussed as high-water mark; yet in 1868, we 
printed for some weeks, two hundred and forty thousand copies. 

In ordinary times, however, the circulation of our various issues 
has fluctuated but little either way from these points ; daily, forty 
thousand; semi-weekly, twenty thousand; weekly, one hundred 
and twenty thousand copies. Our annual receipts have for years 
averaged $1,000,000 per annum. Our expenses have been rather 
less, affording usually, but not uniformly, a considerable margin 
for profit. 

As to the Tribune's character, my aim was to make it a journal 
that should express its editors' convictions forcibly and fearlessly, 
yet not be the organ of any clique or faction, but should seek to 
give effect to those convictions through the action of whatever 
party should for the time seem nearest right, but not be the serf or 
vassal of any manor organization; should be liberal without in- 
difference, and open to the reception and recognition of truth, even 
from an unfriendly source! Others must judge to what extent 
these high aims have been attained. 

Yours, 

Horace Greeeey, 

154 Nassau street. 

L. U. Reavis, Esq., 
St. Louis. 




CHAPTER I. 

FROM BOYHOOD TO MAOTIOOD. 

HE general interest felt in the lives of distinguished 
men springs from a natural and rational curiosity which 
is not peculiar to any class, hut is felt wherever the 
ohject of it is intelligently understood. All men who have he- 
come prominent in ancient or modern history can invariably he 
divided into two classes and the comprehensive and common 
term of bad and good might be used to roughly characterize 
these two divisions, but hardly with strict accuracy. In the 
one may be placed all those whose chief motive to action was 
an intense and overpowering personal ambition, which neces- 
sarily engenders recklessness as to the morality of the means 
employed in forwarding a career. To the other belongs the 
nobler and more useful type of mankind — those men, who, 
while not without the incentive of a strong desire for distinc- 
tion, have a deep love of their country and their fellow-men 
in their hearts, and who associate with their lives and their 
ideas of fame and elevation, honor, recitude and the public 
good. Perhaps in the first class indicated are included the 
greatest number of the prominent personages in history for 
concentrated personal ambition linked with intellectual gifts, 
has been the prime producer of all Alexanders, Caesars, Iiiche- 
liens and Napoleons. It is within the other, however, that 
we find not only the purest and best type of character, but 
the great majority of the true benefactors of the human race. 
Happily for the world notwithstanding the bloody dramas of 
the past, Ave can find nearly in every epoch, and in every coun- 
try, and in every field of intellectual exertion, representatives 



18 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

of this better class of men, not numerous to be sure, but serv- 
ing as witnesses to the higher manhood, and forming a re- 
deeming and beneficent feature often amidst the darkest and 
dreariest surroundings. 

In this category now stands, and will ever stand, the name 
of Horace Greeley. He is in every respect a historic per- 
sonage; not by virtue of occupying important political sta- 
tions, but because of the celebrity he has obtained, the inesti- 
mable value of his public services, and the commanding influ- 
ence he has exercised, and still wields over the course of pub- 
lic affairs. He is certainly a worthy object of admiration and 
interest, and the fact of his having raised himself by his own 
efforts from obscurity to eminence, naturally stimulates curi- 
osity as to the incidents of his career. The sketch which we 
present must be interesting to every intelligent mind, but 
particularly to Americans. He is a strong simple illustration 
of our national characteristics— self-reliant, self-made, ener- 
getic, with a strong, vigorous and versatile mind, patriotic, 
and of unquestionable integrity. It may not be possible for 
every young man to accomplish what he has done, but there 
is encouragement and counsel in the spectacle of his life, and 
every American youth should be familiar with its incidents, 
and its toils, and its triumphs. 

It is not the intention to make this sketch an exhaustive 
biography, but rather a careful resume of the incidents and 
circumstances of Mr. Greeley's personal life and public ca- 
reer, so that each reader may be able to gain from it a full but 
condensed history of the man. Without such information it 
is impossible for any person to fully understand his extraordi- 
nary natural endowments and strength of character, or the 
splendid value of the work of his life for the human race. It 
may be added that in preparing the following sketch we have 
been careful in selecting our information from the most relia- 
ble sources, and if we have omitted some of the amusing and 
interesting anecdotes told of Mi-. Greeley, as a man and as a 
boy, it was because their authenticity was somewhat doubtful, 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 19 

or tliey were considered unnecessary for the purpose in view. 

Horace Greeley was born on the 3d of February, 1811, 
in the township of Amherst, Hillsborough county, New 
Hampshire, in an unpretending frame house of one story, on 
the " Stewart farm" of some forty or fifty acres, owned by 
his father Zaceheus Greeley. Before entering into the de- 
tail of his personal history, it will be appropriate to glance 
at the career of his ancestors in America. 

The conflicts arising from religious differences in Great 
Britain, while they have stained the pages of her history with 
disaster and blood, have been fruitful in many important bene 
fits to this country. They were, more than any other agency, 
instrumental in planting the embryo of the Republic They 
sent to our shores the very best type of men, fitted to en- 
counter successfully the perils of the wilderness, and to lay 
the foundations firmly for a new nation. These people were 
to a very large degree persons of education, though tfuln ess 
and sobriety, whose convictions of religion and social order 
were firmly held, and who, on the one hand, while they pos- 
sessed the courage, energy and superior physique of the Saxon 
race, they, on the other, as to ideas of civil and religious lib- 
erty were in advance of the great mass of the people they left 
behind, while the conflicts in which they had participated, and. 
the exactions from which they fled, had instilled an aversion 
to old forms of government. Their experience and political 
discipline had consequently excellently adapted them to be 
the fore-runners and originators of American institutions. 

The colonists who came to America in 1718 from the north 
of Ireland, were undoubtedly people of the character indicated. 
The "plantation" of English, but more particularly Scotch 
colonies in Ulster, although based upon most arbitrary and 
unjust enactments, resulted eventually to the benefit of that 
portion of the island, as the new settlers were more thrifty, 
industrious and energetic than the natives they supplanted. 
Their advent, however, was followed by fierce Celtic insurrec- 
tions resulting in terrible bloodshed among the Protestant 



20 FEOM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

settlers, whose security was not guaranteed until the iron le- 
gions of Cromwell had swept over Ireland, and thoroughly 
established the domination of England over that unhappy coun- 
try. In the subsequent turmoil that accompanied the dethrone- 
ment of James II, and the war between his Irish adherents 
and the soldiers of AVilliam of Orjmge, the Scotch-Irish set- 
tlers in Ulster, developed all the nobler traits of the mingled 
nationalities. As Presbyterian Protestants, they were natur- 
ally in antagonism to the Romish king, and although greatly 
outnumbered by French and Irish soldiery, they maintained a 
splendid resistance, the central and most famous incident in 
which was the "Siege of Derry,' where a degree of heroism 
was displayed never surpassed in history. Years after the 
scenes of this war had passed away, the Irish Presbyterians 
still found their surroundings distasteful and irksome, for as 
followers of the ideas of Knox, the devoted Catholicism of 
the natives was hardly more repugnant than the doctrines of 
the Protestant Episcopal church now recognized as the " es- 
tablished" religious system. Under such circumstances it is 
not surprising that the question of change of residence sug- 
gested itself, and was seriously considered. They yearned for 
a country where they would be free from the authority of a gov- 
ernment which sought to regulate the opinions as well as the 
acts of men, and they naturally turned toward the new world, 
whose boundless territory was waiting for and inviting Eu- 
ropean settlement. But they were cautious people, and be- 
fore committing themselves to the final step they sent out a 
Mr. Holmes to New England as a sort of avant courier to 
collect information and report to them. The result was favor- 
able, and early in the year 1718 tjie Pev. Wm. Boyd, acting 
as a delegate from the proposed colonists, arrived in this 
country with an address to Gov. Shute of Mass., signed by 
217 persons, of whom 210 had signed their names in fair, legi- 
ble handwriting, nine of the number being clergymen. The 
Governor's reply was encouraging, and upon receiving it the 
colony embarked for the new world in live small vessels, and 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 21 

arrived at Boston, Aug. 4, 1718. Thoir grant of land from 
Gov. Shute was any twelve miles square of unoccupied terri- 
tory which they might select within the boundaries of his jur- 
isdiction, and after some tedious explorations, they selected a 
tract in the forest called Nuffield, so called from the abun- 
dance of chesnut, butternut and hickory trees. Here the col- 
onies finally settled down to make themselves homes, and re- 
christened their settlement "Londonderry," and were in 1722 
incorporated under that name. The grant of Gov. Shute 
ultimately proved nearly valueless, as it was discovered that 
Nuffield was within the boundaries of New Hampshire, and 
not of Massachusetts. The growth of the Londonderry set- 
tlement was prosperous and rapid, it receiving constant acces- 
sions of relatives and friends from the old country, and the 
people by industry and frugality gradually gathered round 
them the requirements of comfortable homes. They pre- 
served their national tastes and traditions, but were anions; the 
most faithful citizens of their adopted country, and rendered 
noble and enthusiastic service in the war of the Revolution 
against the armies of England. "We must, however, pass over 
the details in the history of this colony, as we have said 
enough to indicate its origin and character, both of which are 
associated with the ancestors of Horace Greeley. 

The first settlement of the Greeley family in New Eng- 
land dates to as remote a period as 1640, when three brothers 
of that name, which is spelled four or five different ways, 
reached the shores of America. One settled in the State of 
Maine, where he has many living descendents at present ; an- 
other took up his abode in Rhode Island, where he died not 
long afterward, and the third, in Salisbury, Mass., near the 
southern boundary of New Hampshire, and his descendents 
subsequently transferred their residence to that State, and it is 
with the last mentioned, whose name was Benjamin, that the 
subject of this sketch is directly connected. His son, Zac- 
cheus Greeley, the great grandfather of Horace, lived at 
Hudson, New Hampshire, (formerly called Nottingham-West) 



22 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

and tradition reports him as a shrewd and industrious man, 
given most devotedly to money-making. His son of the same 
name inherited the best part of his father's property, and was 
also a farmer by occupation. He was of a kind disposition, 
rather given to taking the world easy, although he appeai-s to 
have had no small share of domestic responsibility, as he mar- 
ried young and became the father of thirteen children — nine 
sons and four daughters. He owned and worked small farms 
successively in Hudson, Pelham, Nottingham and London- 
derry, and it was in the house of his eldest son John, at the latter 
place, that he died at the ripe age of ninety-four. His second 
son also bore the name of Zaccheus, and was the father of 
Horace Greeley. He married when twenty-live years of 
age, Mary Woodburn, of Londonderry. He bought the 
"Stewart farm "in Amhurst township in 1S08, and it was 
here that Horace was born (Feb. 3, 1811) as above stated. It 
must be said of the Woodburn family, that they strictly be- 
long to the Scotch-Irish race. John Woodburn emigrated 
from Londonderry, Ireland, to the settlement of that name in 
New Hampshire, six or seven years after the foundation of 
the settlement. He w r as accompanied by his brother David, 
wlio was drowned a few years afterwards. John was married 
twice — and of his second wi^je, from whom Horace Greeley is 
descended, the latter makes the following remarks in a letter 
written some years ago to a friend : 

"I think I am indebted for my first impulse toward intel- 
lectual acquirement and exertion to my mother's grand- 
mother, who came out from Ireland among the first settlers in 
Londonderry. She must have been well versed in Irish and 
Scotch traditions, pretty well informed and strong-minded, 
and my mother being left motherless when quite young, her 
grandmother exerted great influence over her mental devel- 
opment." 

The grandfather of Horace Greeley on the mother's side 
was David Woodburn, the eldest son of John Woodburn, 
who married Margaret Clark, and their daughter Mary was 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 23 

the mother of Horace Greeley. Previous to his birth, there 
had been two other children, but they had died in early infan- 
cy, and Horace came very nearly meeting the same fate, as he 
was born unconscious. He received the name of Horace after 
a relative of his father, and because that name had been bestow- 
ed upon one of the children that died at an early age. The 
house on the Stewart farm is thus described by himself: "A 
modest framed, unpainted structure of one story— was then quite 
new ; it was only modified in our time by filling up and mak- 
ing narrower the old-fashioned kitchen fireplace, which, hav- 
ing already devoured all the wood on the farm, yawned rav- 
enously for more. This dwelling faces the road from the 
north on a bench or narrow plateau about two-thirds down 
the hill ; the orchard of natural fruit covers two or three acres 
of the hillside north-east of the house, with the patch of 
garden, and a small frog-pond between. It seemed to me that 
sweeter and more spicy apples grew in that neglected orchard 
than can now be bought in market ; and it is not a mere no- 
tion that most fruits attain their highest and best flavor at or 
near the coldest latitude in which they can be grown at all. 
That orchard was not young forty years ago, and having been 
kept constantly in pasture, never tilled nor enriched, and 
rarely pruned, must be nearly run out by this time." The 
farm on which this unpretending mansion was situated, was 
four or five miles from the village of Amherst, and it was not 
of a very productive character. Farming in those days, and 
on such land was not the road to wealth, and if Zaccheus 
Greeley managed to make a comfortable subsistence for his 
family, it was only by a daily drudgery of labor. It was a 
quiet rural region in which the scattered inhabitants all pur- 
sued the same simple avocation, and where but few incidents 
occurred to vary the quiet routine of each day. The house 
occupied an elevated site, and from the windows there was a 
commanding view of the surrounding country in which rude 
farm buildings here and there, pine woods, fields and rough 
undulations were the prominent features. It is indeed curi- 
ous to look back on such scenes. If a stray traveler happened 



24 FROM BOYnOOD TO MANTIOOD. 

to pass along the old road to Amherst, which ran a short 
distance from the house, it would seem a strange prophecy 
were he told that in that rude little homestead standing in a 
region uninviting and almost dreary in character, and whose 
appearance and surroundings indicated the simplest class of 
farming folk, was to be born a man destined to become famous 
in the busiest scenes of literary and political life. It is the" 
good fortune, however, of American history to be marked by 
just such strange and apparently paradoxical characteristics. 
From the humblest scenes may spring the greatest of our citi- 
zens, and from the healthy surroundings and discipline of pas- 
toral pursuits may emerge the most vigorous and brilliant 
minds, whose subsequent career and services become nobler 
and more truly representative of the people by virtue of their 
unpretentious origin. 

As the reader may readily gather from what we have stated, 
Zaccheus Greeley was poor, and having unfortunately paid 
too high a price for his farm, had to struggle for many years 
under an incubus of debt. Horace, consequently, was almost 
from his earliest years made practically acquainted with labor, 
and an economical and frugal mode of life. "I well remem- 
ber," lie says, " the cold summer (1S1G) when we rose on the 
18th of June to find the earth covered with a good inch of 
newly fallen snow; when there was frost every month, and 
corn did not till till October. * * * * My task 
for a time was to precede my father, as he hoed his corn, dig 
open the hills and kill the wire worms and grubs that were 
anticipating our dubious harvest. To 'ride horse to plow' 
soon became my more usual vocation ; the horse preceding 
and guiding the oxen, save when furrowing for, or tilling the 
planted crops. Occasionally the plow would strike a fast 
stone and bring up the team all standing, pitching me over 
the horse's head and landing me three to five feet in front. 
In the frosty autumn mornings the working teams had to be 
'baited' on the rowen or after-math of thick, sweet grass 
beside the luxuriant corn (maize ,) and I was called out at 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 25 

sun-rise to watch and keep them out of the corn while the 
men ate their breakfast before yoking up and going afield. " 
He also had experience in burning charcoal, clearing woods 
and all the other work incidental to a farm in such a region. 
During the earlier years of his childhood his health continued 
feeble and broken, and he was thrown much into the compan- 
ionship of his mother, who was the more tenderly attached to 
him because of the loss of the two elder children, just previ- 
ous to his birth. She was an active, energetic woman, of 
strong physique, a kind heart and unfailing good humor, and 
possessed an almost inexhaustible store of Scotch-Irish songs 
and traditions. Horace early developed an extraordinary 
appetite for knowledge, and his first steps towards its acquire- 
ment were made as the little boy sat by his mother and she 
told stories of the olden time, or sung to him while she car- 
ried on her domestic duties. In latter years Mr. Greeley 
bore testimony to the influence of the tales and ballads he 
then heard, and said they served to awaken in him a thirst for 
knowledge and a lively interest in learning and history. 
Before he was able to walk he had almost learned to read, 
although he had never been regularly taught, and evinced a 
most extraordinary curiosity respecting books of any kind. 
He would, while yet only three years old, pour over an old 
Bible on the floor, and a story newspaper would afford him a 
subject for curious examination. By the time he was four 
years of age he could read correctly from any book of ordi- 
nary English, and began to develop remarkable powers of 
memory. Shortly before he attained the age of three years 
he was sent on a visit to the house of his grandfather, David 
Woodburn, in Londonderry, and while there attended the 
district school, situated only a short distance from his grand- 
father's house. He continued to attend this school most of 
each winter, and some months in summer, during the ensuing 
three years, remaining during the time at his grandfather's. 
In fact Horace Greeley never attended any other than a dis- 
trict school, and that which he first went to in Londonderry, 



26 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

was of the simplest and most primitive character. It was a 
rudely fashioned little frame structure of one story con- 
taining one apartment, and occupied a bleak and exposed site, 
with no enclosure of any kind around it. It had an actual 
capacity for about thirty or forty scholars, but not unfre- 
quently over fifty were crowded into the small apartment, and 
it required no small physical endurance on the part of the 
pupils and master to get through the school hours, for apart 
from the lack of the proper ventilating facilities, during the 
piercing weather of a New England winter, it was a difficult 
matter to secure anything like a pleasant temperature in such 
a place. The school-master, when Horace first became a 
pupil, was David "Woodburn Dickey, a nephew of David 
Woodburn, and a somewhat severe but well-qualified instruc- 
tor. He was a cripple, and as his charge included all kinds of 
unruly elements, it was with difficulty he managed to support 
his control. The next teacher was Cyrus Winn, a young 
man from Massachusetts, competent in every way, and who 
became a great favorite among the boys and their parents. 
Horace attended school for three terms at Londonderry, and, 
owing to the start given him by his mother, made rapid pro- 
gress, so much so that he became a marked boy among his as- 
sociates. He particularly distinguished himself by correctness 
in spelling, and rose to the head of the " first class, " which 
position he managed to retain almost constantly ; he-partici- 
pated with great pleasure and enthusiasm in the spelling 
matches, in which he generally came off victorious. He was, 
during his early school days, unusually self-possessed for 
a boy, and would go through a recitation with perfect correct- 
ness and sang froid, no matter what visitors were pres- 
ent. His argumentative tendencies not unfrequentlj' involved 
him in disputes with his comrades, but he was not a quarrel- 
some boy, and, although not cowardly, had a disinclination for 
fighting. His taste for reading increased as he grew older, 
and he would often become so absorbed over a book as to be 
entirely oblivious to what was going on around him. Among 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 27 

the reminiscences preserved respecting these times, is one 
which seemed to indicate the choice of a pursuit by the boy at 
a strangely early period. While at a black -smith shop with a 
friend, and watching the process of horse shoeing most in- 
tently, the proprietor said to him jestingly, "You had better 
come with me and learn the trade. " Horace answered im- 
mediately, as if announcing a conclusion long before reached, 
"No, I am going to be a printer." During portions of his fifth 
and sixth years, he attended school in the western district of 
Bedford township, and the following two years the family lived 
in that township, his father having rented his own farm to his 
brother, and taken the "Beard farm," which was much larger, 
to work on shares, and it was here that Horace passed through 
some of the hardest working years of his boyhood. It was 
while living here that some of the leading men of the neigh- 
borhood, having observed the unusual intellectual promise 
of the boy Horace, offered to send him to Phillips Academy, 
at Exeter, and thence to college, without expense to his par- 
ents. This proposition was declined, as his lather and mother 
said they would give their children the best education that 
they could, and would not be indebted to friends for anything 
further. In alluding to this matter, Mr. Greeley, in later 
time said, " I do not remember that I had then any decided 
opinion or wish in the premises, but I now have, and I from 
the bottom of my heart, thank my parents for their wise and 
manly decision. Much as I have needed a fuller, better edu- 
cation, I rejoice that I am indebted for schooling to none but 
those of whom I had a right to ask and expect it. " 

The period during which the Greeley family resided on the 
"Beard farm" was an important one in the life of Horace, as 
it was then that he laid the foundation of his education, and 
of his love of reading and gen eral information, which, more 
than any other influence, moulded his future career. It was, 
however extremely unfortunate for his father. The farm was 
naturally rather a good one, but was in a dilapidated state, 
with ruined fences, old and insecure buildings and a large 



28 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

portion of it over- grown with bushes and briers, and the 
working of it proved anything but remunerative. He had let 
his own farm on shares to a younger brother, who, however, 
did not prosper in its management, and this, with other mis- 
fortunes, began serionsly to embarrass him. To make bad 
worse, his health failed and he was unable to work for nearly 
a year, and he lost some money by becoming security for 
another man. In fact, from all the information attainable, it 
appears that, although an energetic and skillful workman, he 
lacked many of the elements necessary for success in money- 
making. He was of a hearty, generous disposition, fond of 
those jollifications so common at the time among country 
people in connection with important events in social life and 
farm work; he thought more of the present than the future, 
and his affairs became complicated almost before he was aware 
of the fact. The tenancy of the " Beard farm, " in Bedford, 
corresponded nearly to the seventh and eighth years in the 
life of Horace, and he and the three other children had taken 
pleasure in their removal to it, as the buildings and grounds 
were larger than those to which they had been accustomed, 
yet the hard times which came upon their father there, made 
them not unwilling to leave it. In the Spring of 1820 this 
farm was abandoned, and the family returned to the old home 
in Amhurst, where another attempt was made to retrieve 
their fortunes and obtain a firm foothold. Horace at this 
time was nine years old, and so busily was he kept engaged 
on the farm, that during the ensuing Summer he did not go 
to school at all. Notwithstanding all his efforts, Mr. Greeley's 
affairs became daily more threatening; the times were hard 
and everything was cheap, and he had never been quite out 
of debt since he bought the place, and after that his sickness 
and other misfortunes, had swelled his indebtedness to about 
$1,000, which was more than the value of all he had in the 
world. Near the end of August, 1S20, matters came to a 
crisis, and all his available chatties were seized for debt. In 
his "Recollections," published long afterwards, Horacb 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 29 

Greeley graphically narrates the circumstances of this memor- 
able event in his childish days: "We had finished our sum- 
mer tillage and our haying, when a very heavy rain set in, 
near the end of August. I think its second day was a Satur- 
day, and still the rain poured till far into the night. Father 
was absent on business ; but our mother gathered her little 
ones around her and delighted us with stories and prospects 
of good things she proposed to do for us in the better days she 
hoped to see. Father did not return till after we children 
were fast asleep ; and when he did it was with tidings that 
our ill fortune was about to culminate. I guess that he was 
scarcely surprised, though we young ones ruefully were, when, 
about sunrise on Monday morning, the Sheriff and sundry 
other officials, with two or three of our principal creditors 
appeared and — first formally demanding payment of their 
claims — proceeded to levy on farm, stock, implements, house- 
hold stuff, and nearly all our worldly possessions but the 
clothes we stood in. There had been no writ issued till then — 
of course no trial, no judgment — but it was a word and a 
blow in those days, and the blow first, in the matter of debt- 
collecting by legal process. Father left the premises directly, 
apprehending arrest and imprisonment, and was invisible all 
day; the rest of us repaired to a friendly neighbor's, and the 
work of levying went on in our absence. It is needless to add 
that all we had was swallowed up, and our debts not much 
lessened. Our farm, which had cost us $1,350, and which had 
been considerably improved in our hands, Avas appraised and 
set off to creditors at $500, out of which the legal costs were 
first deducted. A barn -full of rye, grown by us on another's 
land, whereof we owned an undivided half, was attached by a 
doctor, threshed out by his poorer customers by day's work on 
account, and sold ; the net result being an enlargement of our 
debt, the grain failing to meet all the costs. Thus when night 
fell we were as bankrupt a family as well could be. " 

After this event the family could not remain long on the 
Amherst farm, and Mr. Greeley set off immediately on foot in 



30 FKOM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

search of a new abiding place. He worked two or three 
months in the township of Hampton, Washington county, 
New York, with Col. Parker French, who had a large farm 
and kept a tavern. He subsequently rented a small house for 
sixteen dollars per annum, in the township of Westhaven, 
Vermont, and then returned to Amhurst and removed the 
family to their new home. They left on the 1st of January, 
1821, in a hired two-horse sleigh, carrying with them whatever 
remained of their household gear. It was the depth of winter, 
and the journey was accomplished in about three days, arriv- 
ing at their destination in West Haven under circumstances 
calculated to discourage anybody less courageous and resolute 
than these hardy descendants of the heroes of Londonderry. 
At this time Zaccheus Greeley wes thirty-eight years of age, 
his wife thirty-three, Horace not quite ten, and his two sis- 
ters and one brother, eight, six and four, respectively ; all of 
them tolerably healthy, and, notwithstanding their poverty, 
commenced their career in their new home a lively'and happy 
domestic group. In many respects they gained by their 
change of residence, for, although not quite free from the old 
New Hampshire debts, yet their affairs were less embarrass- 
ing, and Mr. Greeley had steady work at chopping, making 
enough to supply the necessaries of life, and the children 
went to school regularly, there being two schools in the vicin- 
ity, the district having been divided by some dispute between 
the trustees, and they were both better than those of New 
Hampshire. The land, too, was better diversified by moun- 
tains and lowlands, and five or six miles from the house was 
the broad and beautiful expanse of Lake Champlain. It was a 
broad, kindly country, with pure stimulating influences, and 
peopled by a thrifty, simple and pure minded race. 

In the Spring of 1821, Mr. Greeley commenced clearing, 
under contract, a tract of fifty acres of wild land, about a mile 
north of their home; and he and his sons worked at this ex- 
cept during the winter time, for nearly two years. They were 
all poor choppers, and started the work just as the snow had 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 31 

commenced to melt, and the slush was nearly knee-deep. It 
was apparently a task of hopeless magnitude; and Horace, in 
after years, said that occasionally, travelers passing along the 
public road that skirted the tract, would get into talk with the 
boys and tell them that they would be men before they got 
through with the job. But the family was poor; work they 
must and work they did, with a will. Tiie mother and girls 
kept house at home, and the father and boys chopped in the 
woods, burned great heaps of under-brush and logs, brought 
home abundance of fuel, and toiled at the job until it was fin- 
ally completed. It is when we glance at such scenes as this, 
that we realize how thoroughly practical has been the experi- 
ence of the subject of this sketch. It is not alone that he has 
fought his way up from the rudest form of peasant life ; from 
the state of simple physical labor, to the. sphere of the highest 
intellectual effort, and the position of a leader in political 
thought, and a prominent name in letters. But he is also fa- 
miliar, by actual experience, with the duties, the manners and. 
the thoughts of the farming and working classes. Above them 
in the scale of labor, he is not separated from them, and in the 
singular success and public usefulness of his services, is one of 
the best and noblest specimens of American manhood, living ; 
for he is alike representative of the two great classes of human 
worker — those who toil with the body, and those who laboi 
with the brain. 

The tract of land they were clearing, was on the estate of 
Mr. Minot, and the original agreement was seven dollars per 
acre, with the use of a team, and half the wood suitable for 
timber and fuel ; so that three hundred and fifty dollars would 
be the whole amount of pay for two years' work for a man and 
two boys, which, even in those days, could not be considered 
very profitable. As matters turned out, however, they did not 
even get the whole of this sum, for Mr. Minot died suddenly, 
and his estate was declared insolvent, and they were never 
paid in full. The third year in Yermont, Mr. Greeley be- 
came interested in a saw-mill, at a place called Flea Knoll, 



32 FKOM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

about two miles further west, and operated it on shares, assisted 
by his partner. Horace determined to help, but was not favor- 
ably impressed with the work, and backed out after a little 
while and let his younger brother take his place, while he de- 
voted himself most earnestly to farming, but with rather un- 
satisfactory results. This year was not fortunate for the fam- 
ily, for the Spring and early Summer were wet, and then en- 
sued a most severe and protracted drought, and the crops were 
almost an entire failure. In the Fall the ague prostrated both 
father and mother, and subsequently, the children, and they 
finally left Flea Knoll rather hurriedly, (no family, it was said, 
ever remained there more than a year.) and returned to the 
Minot estate, taking a house west of their former abode, and 
cultivating a tract of land on shares, besides clearing oiF about 
twenty acres of young white pine. For this last job the pay 
was to be two years' crops, which, however, did not prove re- 
munerative, as the wheat was nearly destroyed by the midge. 
Horace was at school three winters in West Haven, but as he 
had by this time nearly gone the round of district school in- 
struction, he gained no particular advantage. According to 
the testimony of one of his then school-mates, he was always 
at the top of the school, and rarely met a teacher who could 
impart to him anything new ; his accuracy in orthography and 
grammar was particularly remarkable ; and a mistake — which 
was rarely made — would crimson his face and be a source of 
protracted irritation. He never quarreled with his compan- 
ions, but was fond of play, particularly snow-balling, and was 
of an obliging disposition, always ready to assist backward pu- 
pils with their lessons. His passion for reading increased 
rather than diminished, and in the evening, his favorite occu- 
pation was to sit close to the fire-place reading by the light of 
blazing pine knots. He was extremely fond of draughts, and 
acquired so much skill in the game that there was kardty a 
player in that part of the country who could beat him; the 
checker-board, indeed, was about the only thing that could 
draw him from his books in the evening. The subject of his 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 33 

unrestrained studies, were, as might be supposed, varied enough ; 
newspapers, political pamphlets, history, poetry, with a mass 
of light prose literature. He studied Shakspeare and the Arabi- 
an Nights with equal avidity, and was a devoted admirer of 
Mrs. Hemans' poems, and in after years spoke feelingly of the 
effect they had produced upon his unfolding mind. lie had 
not at this time forgotten his intention of being a printer ; he 
talked to his father about it, who discouraged him, saying he 
was too young, and in order to satisfy himself, he walked to 
"White Hall, a town about nine miles distant, where there was 
a paper published, and made inquiries; he was told by the 
publisher that he was too young to be taken as an apprentice ; 
and he returned home to bide his time. Not long after, he 
made a more extended journey, walking the whole distance to 
Londonderry, to make a visit to his old friends and relatives, 
starting out with seventy-five cents in his pocket. He was re- 
ceived with the utmost cordiality, and his journey considered 
marvellous for a boy of his years. He walked back home after a 
stay of a few weeks, and seemed to think he had done nothing 
extraordinary. He took a deep interest in politics, and by the 
aid of his singularly retentive memory, he possessed himself 
of an amount of information respecting men and things, in the 
political world, that was really astonishing for a boy of his age. 
We now approach the most important event in the boyhood of 
Horace Greeley ; that which determined his future career. His 
desire to be a printer was constantly cherished, and in the Spring 
of 1826, an advertisement appeared in the Northern Spectator , 
published at East Poulcney, Vermont, for an apprentice in that 
office. Horace, who devoured all the newspapers that came in 
his way, saw this advertisement, and immediately mentioned the 
matter to his father, who was then thinking of going West in 
search of another home. He obtained permission to try for the 
place, and walked over to East Pou ] tney to make his application. 
The village was then a bustling, active little place — a good deal 
more so than it is now — hut was not large enough to properly 
support a newspaper ; but, nevertheless, at the time Ave speak of, 
3 



34 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

there was one in existence. Its founders were Messrs. Smith & 
Shute, who had started it a little over three years before, under 
the title of the Poultney Gazette. It could not probably have 
been a very profitable concern, aud would, in all likelihood, have 
died out, only for the energy of the citizens. They were in favor 
of a local journal, and determined to support it under the man- 
agement of a committee. They bought out the printing office and 
good will, and procured Mr. E. G. Stone, of New York, as editor. 
The change of ownership disorganized the old force of the office, 
and so room was made for a new apprentice, and hence the ad- 
vertisement which had attracted the attention of Horace. His 
application for the place, notwithstanding several objections stub- 
bornly made by his father as to terms, was eventually successful, 
and on April 18, 1826, a few days after his first visit, an agree- 
ment was consummated, and he became a regular attache of the 
office. The terms were, that he was to remain until twenty years 
of age, board to be allowed only for six months, and afterwards 
forty dollars per annum in addition, for clothing. 

Before following the young printer in his new career, we must 
notice the movements of the family about this time. Mr. Gree- 
ley having, in a way, provided for Horace, turned his attention 
to seeking a new place to settle. His brothers, Benjamin and 
Leonard, having some years before settled in Erie county, Penn- 
sylvania, he also went in that direction, and after some investiga- 
tions bought a tract of land on which was a log hut and four acres 
of clearing, the balance being heavily timbered, and then returned 
to West Haven for his family. Before they left, Horace walked 
over from Poultney, to take farewell, and spent a Sabbath with 
them. The parting scene was an affecting one, for the members 
of the family were deeply attached to one another. Some of his 
people urged him to give up his engagement, and go with his par- 
ents to their new home. He was then not quite satisfied with the 
state of things at the office of the Spectator, and was strongly 
tempted to comply. Had his mother, he said in after years, joined 
in the entreaties, he would probably have yielded ; but she did 
not, and he finally refused to break his agreement, and bade them 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 35 

all farewell. His walk back to Poultney, a distance of twelve 
miles, was, he sajs, " one of the slowest and saddest of my life." 
The early days of his apprenticeship were not without many 
trials and annoyances. He was then about fifteen years of age, 
loose-jointed and awkward, with a rough mass of tow-colored 
hair, somewhat pale, a broad forehead, and a head so large that 
it appeared curiously disproportionate with his body ; his dress 
was that of a farm boy, and altogether there was something odd 
and comic in his appearance and bearing. He was, of course, 
wholly unacquainted with the work before him, and naturally be- 
came the object of badinage and irritating criticism among his 
associates. It appears, however, that he was not at all disconcerted 
by the novelty of his position, but set himself to learn the business 
with that concentration of faculty, and purpose, and persistent 
energy, which have been among the prominent characteristics of 
his life. His employers quickly discovered the unusual amount 
of general information possessed by their new assistant, and from 
the outset treated him with kindness and consideration, while his 
industry and the rapid progress he made in acquiring the business, 
gradually acquired for him more respectful treatment from his 
companions. The village of Poultney was an exceedingly quiet 
place, with few distracting influences for the young apprentice, 
even had he been disposed to waste his time ; he was not, how- 
ever, but displayed so remarkable an assiduity, that it attracted 
general attention. As to the affairs in the office, his own words 
explain them best : " The organization and management of our es- 
tablishment were vicious, for an apprentice should have one mas- 
ter ; while I had a series of them, and often two or three at once. 
First, our editor left us ; next, the company broke up or broke 
down, as any one might have known it would ; and a mercantile 
firm in the village became owners and managers of the concern, 
and so we had a succession of editors and printers. These 
changes enabled me to demand and receive a more liberal allow- 
ance for the later years of my apprenticeship ; but the office was 
too slackly ruled for the most part, and, as to instruction, every 
one had perfect liberty to learn whatever he could." His labors 



36 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

■were not by any means confined to type-setting ; he had to assist 
generally, and participate in nearly all the mechanical work of 
the office ; and hardly a day passed that he and his companions 
were not hurried with their work. He had often to work off the 
edition of the paper on an old fashioned wooden Ramage press — 
too severe a stress on his boyish frame, and which blistered his 
hands and injured his back. In fact, Horace Greeley never 
worked harder perhaps in his life, than during his nearly five years' 
stay in Poultney, during which he hardly had an hour for recrea- 
tion, such as boys usually delight in, except reading, which few 
boys think a pleasure. One bright spot, however, in the routine 
of his apprenticeship, was the opportunity he had for study. At 
West Haven, he could only get such books as he could borrow, 
but in Poultney, there was a public library, to which he had easy 
access, and here he spent nearly all of his spare time. There was 
also a village lyceum, and here he sometimes joined in debate, or 
presented written essays ; and notwithstanding the hard work, it is 
easy to see that he was now among scenes much more congenial to 
his active and capacious intellect, than any he had known before, 
and his abilities received their due stimulus in their development. 
Mr. Amos Bliss, who was connected with the Spectator at the 
time Horace joined its staff, speaks of the extraordinary industry 
of the boy at this period : " Having a thirst for knowledge, he 
bent his mind and all his energies to its acquisition with unceasing 
application and untiring devotion, and I doubt if in the whole 
term of his apprenticeship, he ever spent an hour in the common 
recreations of young men." During his stay here, he boarded for 
a portion of the time at the tavern, and always exhibited perfect 
self possession in the presence of strangers, joining in political 
and other arguments with perfect freedom and great animation, 
and his memory of facts and figures was so remarkable, as well 
as the amount of his general information, that as he became 
known, he acquired quite a standing as an authority and a stand- 
ard of appeal in all disputes. He was not at all affected by the 
general habit of drinking, and was strictly temperate in his hab- 
its, but fond of coffee, and although not robust, had a large ap- 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 37 

petite ; his pre- occupied manner and rapid style of eating often 
attracted attention. His taste for politics was strengthened by 
his surroundings in Poultney, which, although a small place, was 
full of active politicians ; and Horace participated in their dis- 
cussions with singular interest and enthusiasm. The bitter presi- 
dential struggle of 1828, between the parties of Jackson and 
Adams, created intense excitement in Poultney, as it did all over 
the country, and the paper with which Horace was connected was 
bitterly opposed to the Jackson faction, and he labored most as- 
siduously against the same. Alluding to this contest in his 
u Recollections," Mr. Greeley says : " Poultney gave next day 
three hundred and thirty-four votes for Adams to four for Jack- 
son. I doubt that her vote has ever since been so unanimous or 
so strong. And though the general result was heavily adverse to 
our desperate hopes, we had the poor consolation that whatever 
disaster the political revolution might involve, no shadow of re- 
sponsibility could rest on our own Vermont." 

Twice, during the course of his apprenticeship, Horace visited 
his father's family in Peoria, between five and six hundred miles 
distant, walking a great portion of the way, and making the rest 
of the journey on the Erie Canal Line boats, and in each instance 
remained away about a month, returning to his work with renewed 
energy. As his mind matured, he developed those striking char- 
acteristics which he has displayed so prominently in his subsequent 
career ; his political views were clear and decided ; he was a strong 
Protectionist, and had violent likes and dislikes as to public per- 
sonages ; his interest in public questions was always active and 
sincere, and among the incidents of this early portion of his life 
which made the deepest impression upon him, was a fugitive 
slave-chase which occurred in Poultney. The act abolishing 
slavery in New York, had ordained that certain persons born 
slaves, should remain in servitude until twenty-eight years of age, 
and of this number, a great many had not yet regained their freedom. 
A young negro escaped from his master in a New York town, and 
sought refuge in Poultney ; and when his master, duly armed with 
legal process, came to reclaim him, a tremendous excitement was 



38 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

raised in the village, the upshot of which was that the slave dis- 
appeared, and the New Yorker was dismissed home without hia 
property. The masonic excitement of 1827, incident to the pub- 
lication of the Morgan book, and the subsequent mysterious dis- 
appearance of its author, pervaded all classes in New England, 
and indeed throughout the country, and was of course felt at 
Poultney. Horace embraced the anti-masonic side, and during 
the following year or so denounced the Order and its advocates, 
both by his tongue and pen with untiring ardor ; and a rooted 
opposition to secret societies has been one of the permanent con- 
victions of his life. His stay in Poultney, although fruitful to 
him in mental growth and improvement, was, on the whole, un- 
eventful. He soon learned the trade of a printer, and his superior 
ability and industry, made him one of the most valuable hands in 
the office, as he had made himself familiar with every department 
of the work, and was also able to afford important assistance in 
the editorial matter. The Spectator, however, did not thrive, as 
indeed, could hardly have been expected in so small a place, and 
after various fluctuations in June, 1830, the second month of the 
fifth year of his apprenticeship. Its publication was suspended ; 
the establishment was broken up, and our young apprentice re- 
leased from his engagement, found himself once again his own 
master, with a slim wardrobe and about twenty dollars in hard 
cash. He was at this time suffering from a sore leg, the result 
of an accidental injury about a year before, and it occasionally 
became badly swollen, and seemed to threaten serious conse- 
quences. He determined to make his way to Pennsylvania on a 
visit to his father, and there remain until his leg was cured and 
he had determined upon a plan for future operations. 

Horace Greeley entered Poultney as a boy, and although he 
did not leave it as a man, yet it was with the foundations of his 
character firmly laid, and with views to a great extent matured 
and firmly held, on all those social, political, and religious ques- 
tions which suggest themselves so readily to the intelligent and 
thoughtful. As to his peculiar views respecting politics and so- 
cial matters, perhaps enough may be gathered from what we have 



FKOM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 39 

already said in the preceding pages, but as to religion it may be 
appropriate to indicate his ideas. He is now, and has been from 
early boyhood, a Universalis t, and without deriving any tendency 
toward that form of faith, from either parental influence or early 
association. His father was a Baptist in belief, and his mother 
was connected, we believe, with the Presbyterian church, and at 
home Horace probably never heard the doctrines he afterwards 
embraced even alluded to ; indeed even if his parents had been 
the strictest religionists, and constantly anxious to instil their 
principles, his active and original mind would ultimately have fol- 
lowed the bent of its own convictions and inclinations. He was 
not methodically educated, and at the time the foundations of his 
religious belief were laid, he knew little or nothing of religious 
literature. He was, however, a thoughtful boy, accustomed to 
draw conclusions with each step he made in the acquirement of 
knowledge, and it was from reflections on an event in ancient 
Grecian history that his first religious convictions were derived. 
When about ten years old, he came across, in his miscellaneous 
reading, a well-written account of the extraordinary magnanimity 
displayed by Demetrius, surnamed Poliorcetes, (destroyer of 
cities) one of the successors of Alexander, toward the Athenian 
people. This prince, at the age of twenty-two, was sent by his 
father against Ptolemy, who had invaded S} 7 ria. He was defeated 
near Galga, but he soon repaired his loss by a victory over one 
of the generals of the enemy. He afterwards sailed with a fleet 
of two hundred and fifty ships to Athens, and restored the 
Athenians to liberty by freeing them from the power of Cassander 
and Ptolemy, and repelling the garrison which was stationed 
there. After this successful expedition, he besieged and took 
Munychia, and defeated Cassander, at Thermopylae. His recep- 
tion at Athens after these victories, was attended with the great- 
est servility, and the Athenians were not ashamed to raise alters 
to him as a god, and to consult his oracles. At the battle of 
Ipsus, Demetrias was defeated and withdrew to Ephesus, and 
embarked thence for Greece, having left his fleet, money, and his 
wife at Athens. He was met on the way by ambassadors from 



40 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

the Athenians who informed him that he could not be received 
into the city, and that his wife had been sent to Megara. The 
prince demanded his galleys, and having obtained them, he sailed 
away from ungrateful and perfidious Athens. He subsequently 
retrieved his fortunes, and before long returned with a large fleet 
and besieged the city, and reduced the inhabitants to such an extrem- 
ity, that the gates were finally opened to the conqueror. It was 
naturally expected that Demetrius would devise some terrible re- 
venge for the treatment he had received, but to the amazement of 
all, he restrained his soldiers and ordered the people to assemble 
in the theatre. Here he appeared before the multitude, who 
seemed in the words of Rollin, "more dead than alive," and 
awaited the event in inxpressible terror, expecting it would prove 
their sentence to destruction. He, however, spoke to them gent- 
ly, reasoned with them on their past ingratitude, and finally par- 
doned and restored them to favor, providing food for the famish- 
ing thousands, and reinstating popular rulers. 

It was by this incident which we here briefly sketched, that the 
youthful Horace was so deeply impressed ; and the result of his 
meditations is thus expressed by himself: "Reflecting with ad- 
miration on this exhibition of magnanimity, too rare in human an- 
nals, I was moved to inquire if a spirit so nobly, so wisely tran- 
scending the mean and savage impulse which man too often dis- 
guises as justice, when it is in essence, revenge, might not be rev- 
erently termed Divine ; and the firm conclusion to which I was 
finally led, imported that the old Greek's treatment of vanquished 
rebels or prostrate enemies, must forcibly image and body forth 
that of the 'King, immortal, invisible, and only wise God.' 
When I reached this conclusion, I had never seen one who was 
called, or who called himself a Universalist ; and I neither saw 
one nor read a page of any one's writings, for years thereafter. 
I had only heard that there were a few graceless reprobates and 
scurvy outcasts, who pretended to believe that all men would be 
saved, and to wrench the Scriptures into some sort of conformity 
to their mockery of a creed. I had read the Bible through, much 
of it repeatedly, but when quite too infantile to form any coher- 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 41 

ent definite synopsis of the doctrines I presumed to be taught 
therein. But soon after entering a printing office, I procured ex- 
changes "with several Universalist periodicals, and was thenceforth 
familiar with their methods of interpretation and of argument ; 
though I first heard a sermon preached by one of this school, 
while passing through Buffalo, about 1830 ; and I was acquaint- 
ed with no society and no preacher of this faith prior to my arriv- 
al in New York in August, 1831, when I made my way on the 
first Sunday morning of my sojourn, to the little chapel in Grand 
street, near Pitt — about the size of an average country school- 
house — where Rev. Thos. J. Sawyer, then quite young, ministered 
to a congregation of perhaps a hundred souls, to which congrega- 
tion I soon afterwards attached myself, remaining a member of it 
until he left the city." 

It is unnecessary to pursue the subject further, as our 
readers can now fully understand the origin and character of the 
religious opinions of Horace Greeley. They are still unchanged, 
for they were not adopted hastily, and like all of his convictions, 
they are firmly and permanently held. 

It was not without sincere regret that Horace bade farewell to 
Poultney, where he had spent something over four years, and had 
made many warm personal friends. The breaking up of the 
paper, however, never again issued in the same town, left him no 
alternative, and with his usual promptitude of action he started 
on the long journey to his father's place in June, 1830. He was 
accompanied by a friend of about his own age, and went by 
wagon to Comstock's Landing on the Champlain canal, and 
thence by line boat to Troy and Buffalo. Near Rochester he 
parted company with his friend, crossed Lake Erie to Dunkirk by 
steamboat, and walked diagonally across Chautauqua county to 
his father's in Erie county, Pennsylvania. Notwithstanding his 
sore leg he must have been in pretty good physical condition, for 
he tells us : "I think it was on this visit that I made my best 
day's walk — from Fredonia through Mayville and Mina to my 
father's, which can hardly be less than forty miles now, and by 
the zigzags we then made must have been considerably farther." 



42 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

The new home of the Greeley family was about three miles from 
the then little Hamlet of Clymer, and being situated in the depths 
of the woods was somewhat difficult to get at. When Horace 
reached Clymer on his first visit, it was nearly dusk of a Satur- 
day night, and he was advised to postpone attempting to reach his 
father's until the morning ; this he refused to do, and in attempt- 
ing to reach his destination, lost his way, and finally spent the night 
in the cabin of a friendly settler, and reached his father's next morn- 
ing. He was gladly received, but was rather disappointed with the 
new homestead, which was inferior to either of the two houses the 
family had formerly lived in ; he found all his people well, his 
father and brother actively engaged in clearing, and his mother 
toiling as usual at household duties, a little less cheerful than 
formerly, for she was not quite reconciled to this primitive, pio- 
neer forest life. He remained at home a few weeks, and then 
set about looking for work ; he succeeded at first in getting some 
on a newspaper published at Jamestown, about twenty miles dis- 
tant ; here, however, he found that there was no money to be 
made, as he could not get even that which he had earned, and so 
he returned to his father's. His next employment was at the lit- 
tle town of Lodi, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., where he received 
about eleven dollars a month, and here he remained as long as 
his employer could afford to pay him, returning home about the 
first of January, 1831. He remained this time about a month, 
assisting his father and brother in their chopping, and then con- 
vinced that he was better adapted for some other calling than that 
of the pioneer, he once more set out to search for work as a 
printer, and walked through the woods to the town of Erie. He 
went directly on his arrival to the office of the Erie Gazette, a 
weekly paper, published and owned by Mr. Joseph M. Sterrett, 
and obtained employment at fifteen dollars per month. The pub- 
lisher of the Gazette in after years thus narrated his first meet- 
ing with Horace Greeley: "I was not," he says, "in the 
printing office when he arrived ; I came in soon after and saw 
him sitting at the table reading the newspapers, and so absorbed 
in them that he paid no attention to my entrance. My first feel- 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 43 

ing was one of astonishment, that a fellow so singularly " green " 
in his appearance should be reading, and above all reading so 
intent! j. I looked at him for a few moments, and then, finding 
that he made no movement toward acquainting me with his busi- 
ness, I took sp my composing stick, and went to work. He con- 
tinued to read for twenty minutes or more, when he got up, and 
coming close to my case, asked in his peculiar whining voice, 
"Do you want any help in the printing business ? " *'Why," 
said I, running my eye unvoluntarily up and down the extraordi- 
nary figure, " did you ever work at the trade ?" "Yes," was 
the reply, "I worked some at it in an office in Vermont, and I 
should be willing to work under instruction if you could give me 
a job." This reply was misunderstood, as it created the impres- 
sion that the applicant might be a runaway apprentice, and Mr. 
Sterrett told the stranger that he had no need of his assistance, 
though there was need of an additional hand in the office. Subse- 
quently, however, through the interposition of a friend, Horacs 
obtained the situation at the pay above stated, and he remained 
here about five months, during which time he boarded at Mr. 
Sterrett's house. The paper was, in a small way, a profitable 
concern, and as Erie was then an active town, with a great prom- 
ise for the future, his residence there was a pleasant episode in 
his life, and enabled him to acquire much new and valuable ex- 
perience. He was marked here as elsewhere for his constant as- 
siduity, and his correctness as a compositor. He continued to take 
a deep interest in politics, while his fondness for reading was 
such as often to entrench on his hours for meals and relaxation, 
while he was so saving of his money, that his coarse and rural 
attire remained unchanged, nor did a suggestion from his em- 
ployer work any important improvement in the matter. When 
he failed on the Gazette, he paid a short visit home, and giving 
his father the best part of his earnings, he once more set out to 
look for work ; and after an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a 
situation on a journal at Wilksbarre, Penn., he finally determined 
to turn his steps toward New York, taking with him about 
twenty-five dollars in money. The weather was hot, and tho 



44 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD 

journey was a long and fatiguing one, rendered probably more 
so by his diverging to visit a friend at Gaines, nearly forty miles 
west of Rochester. He reached here on a Saturday night, and 
on Sunday afternoon they walked together down to the canal to 
meet the boat, and waited until nightfall without success. Fin- 
ally Horace bade his friend farewell, and walked down the tow- 
path, expecting to be overtaken by the boat, but in vain, and 
walked on to Brockport some fifteen miles distance, through the 
darkness. Here he took a line-boat eastward, and debarked at 
Schenectady, and walked along the turnpike road to Albany, and 
traveled thence by boat to New York, landing near Whitehall at 
six o'clock on the morning of the 17th of August, 1831. When 
we contrast the Horace Greeley of the present, with the odd, 
rural-looking youth that entered New York on the morning men- 
tioned, it is almost impossible to realize that they are one and the 
same person. In one picture is a youthful and friendless stranger 
entering a large city without home, money, except a few dollars, 
and even a simple acquaintance among the whole population 
around him — in the other, we see a matured and powerful mind 
of national influence and reputation, controlling the greatest jour- 
nal in the country, and one of the best-known men in America. 
What an extraordinary antithesis ! and yet that the one is the 
actual and legitimate out-come of the other, the development ac- 
complished by innate genius and power, is the grand and striking 
fact in the life of Horace Greeley. It determines the question 
of his extraordinary natural gifts, as well as that of his being 
truly representative of American energy and manhood, both in 
his character and his career. There is something strangely inter- 
esting in the spectacle of his entry into New York in view of the 
results that attended it, and it speaks words of encouragement to 
every young man in situations of loneliness and distress. Few 
may be able to accomplish the same result, but all can imitate his 
courage, energy, self-reliance and industry, for these are the 
foundation-stones of his fame and fortune. 

Horace had in actual cash, when he entered New York, 
about ten dollars ; and thus characterizes himself: " I was twen- 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 45 

ty years old, the preceding February, tall, slender, pale and 
plain, with ten dollars in my pocket, summer clothing, worth 
perhaps as much more, nearly all on my back, and a decent 
knowledge of so much of the art of printing, as a boy will usu- 
alty learn in the office of a country newspaper." He was not, 
however, disconcerted or oppressed by his situation, but left 
the boat promptly and with pleasure, and carrying all his world- 
ly effects in a pocket handkerchief, walked up Broad street in 
search of a boarding house. His first enquiry was at a place 
near the corner of Wall street ; but when he learned that the 
price of board was six dollars a week, which seemed to his ru- 
ral mind most exorbitant, and entirely beyond his means, he 
walked out rather faster than he walked in, and continued his 
investigations. He wandered about the city to the North River 
side, and seeing the sign of " Boarding " on an unprententious 
looking house, 168 West street, he entered, and found the 
price of board and lodging two dollars and fifty cents per week, 
and as this seemed in some degree suitable with his means, he 
became an inmate of the establishment. The place was kept 
by Mr. Edward McG-olrick, and united a saloon with a board- 
ing house, but w T as quietly and respectably kept. The same 
morning after breakfast, he commenced his search for work, 
and visited, according to his own account, "fully two-thirds of 
the printing offices on Manhattan Island, without a gleam of 
success," it being in the middle of summer, business was dull, 
and this, with the rustic air of the applicant, probably account- 
ed for his failure. At the Journal of Commerce office, Mr. 
David Hale, the editor, plainly expressed his conviction that 
applicant was a runaw r ay apprentice from a country printing 
office, and, no doubt at other places, he was subjected to a sim- 
ilar suspicion. On Saturday evening he was so wearied and dis- 
couraged by his want of success, that he determined to leave 
New York the following Monday, before his means were 
quite gone, and having reached this conclusion, he went to bed 
somewhat despondent. The next day, however, accident fa- 
vored the young adventurer — some young Irishmen visited 



46 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

McGolrick's during the course of the afternoon, and learning 
that the stranger whom they saw there was a printer, from the 
country, in search of employment, they exhibited a friendly 
interest in him, and one of them knowing where some print- 
ers were wanted, gave him the address, and Horace went there 
the first thing on Monday morning. The establishment was 
that of John T. West, 85 Chatham street, over McElrath & 
Bangs' book store and publishing house, and here he obtained 
employment as a compositor. Perhaps it should be mentioned, 
as illustrating the character of our hero, that his first Sunday 
in New York was not spent in idle wanderings — in the morn- 
ing he found his way to a small Universalist church, in Pitt 
street, nearly three miles from his boarding house, and in the 
evening he attended a Unitarian church. The most probable 
reason that Horace obtained employment so easily at the house 
of Mr. West, was that he undertook work that no other print- 
er in the city would accept. He describes the character of the 
job with professional accuracy, as follows : "It was the compo- 
sition of a very small (32 mo.) New Testament, in double col- 
umns of agate type, each column barely twelve ems wide, with 
a centre column of notes, in pearl, only four ems wide; the 
text thickly studded with references by Greek, and superior 
letters to the notes, which, of course, were preceded and dis- 
criminated- by corresponding indices with prefatory and sup- 
plementary remarks on each book set in pearl, and only paid 
for as agate. The type was considerably smaller than an} 7 to 
which I had been accustomed ; the narrow measure, and thickly 
sown italics of the text, with the strange characters employed 
as indices, rendered it the slowest, and by far, the most diffi- 
cult work I had ever undertaken ; while the miking up, and 
correcting twice, and even thrice over, preparatory to stereo- 
typing, nearly doubled the time required for oidinary compo- 
sition." At this troublesome and trying piece of work, Hor- 
ace toiled day by day, with a curious, silent perseverence, that 
amused and somewhat astonished the other hands in the office. 
He was never a very fast type-setter, aiming principally at cor- 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 47 

reetness in his proofs ; but so difficult was the Testament, that, 
although he stuck to it twelve or fourteen hours a day, he was 
only able to earn live or six dollars a week, and the other com- 
positors could not be induced to work on it more than a day 
or two, so that he had it nearly all to himself, and persevered 
until he had finished it. When this was accomplished, he re- 
mained out of work for about two weeks ; and during this pe- 
riod he attended the sittings of the Tariff Convention, held at 
the American Institute, and presided over by the Hon. Wm. 
Wilkins of Pittsburg. Shortly after commencing work on the 
Testament, he removed his boarding quarters to Mrs. Mason's 
shoemaker boarding house, on the corner of Chatham and Du- 
ane streets. He next obtained work in a place on Ann street, 
where a periodical was published, which, however, had a brief 
existence, and Horace did not get the money he had earned. 
The following month he returned to West's, and went to work 
on a commentary on the book of Genesis, by the He v. George 
Bush, which, although not quite as bad as the Testament, was 
still a difficult and not a profitable piece of work, but he kept 
at it until completion, and then found himself again out of an 
engagement. The winter was one of unusual severity ; neces- 
saries were dear, and money scarce, and business dull ; and the 
young printer made poor headway. On the first of January, 
1832, he found employment on the Spirit of the Times, a 
weekly paper, principally devoted to sporting intelligence, and 
then just started by Messrs. Wm. T. Porter and James Howe, 
both printers ; and with whom Horace had worked at West's, 
during his first engagement. A month or two afterwards the pa- 
per was moved to Wall street, into quarters near the present site 
of the Merchants' Exchange. The foreman was Francis Y. Sto- 
ry, about the same age as Horace, and they became intimate 
friends ; and, although there Avas but poor pay to be made on 
the Spirit, Horace worked on it during the Spring and ensu- 
ing Summer. It was a dreary Summer in JSTew York ; the 
weather was hot, the city dirty, and the cholera prevailed ex- 
tensively, and the business of the city was completely para- 



48 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

lyzed. In walking from and to his work at dinner time, Ho 
ace often passed stretchers, bearing cholera patients to tli 
hospitals; and altogether his early experiences in New Yor. 
were of the most discouraging and unpromising character. 
With the approach of the cool weather of Fall, however, the 
epidemic diminished in virulence ; fugitives from the city re- 
turned, and business generally, revived. In October, Horace 
having saved a little money, visited his relatives in New Hamp- 
shire ; and their homes being scattered, his tour was quite an 
extensive one, and performed mostly on foot ; and he returned 
to New York in time to vote at the State election, which he 
did for the anti-Jackson ticket, which, however, was over- 
whelmingly defeated. He next obtained work at the stereo- 
typing establishment of J. S. Redlield, with whom he remained 
until he took his first step toward getting into business for 
himself. Referring to the application of Horace for work, Mr. 
Hedtfeld, in after years, wrote as follows: ''Being much in 
want of help at the time Greeley was set to work, and I was 
not a little surprised, to find on Saturday night, that his bills 
were much larger than those of any other compositor in the 
office, and oftentimes nearly doubled those at work by the side 
of him, on the same work. He would accomplish this too, and 
talk all the time. The same untiring industry, and the same 
fearlessness and independence, which have characterized his 
course as editor of the New York Tribune, are the distin- 
guishing features of his character as a journeyman." 

The acquaintance which had begun between Francis Y. Sto 
ry, foreman of the Spirit of the Times, and Horace Greeley, 
when the latter obtained work on that paper as a printer, 
resulted in an intimate friendship between the two young men. 
They were about the same age, both poor, and struggling with 
fortune; and' both ambitious. They made their first venture 
in business together, and it came about in this way — Story had 
been for some time anxious to start a small printing establish- 
ment, and of offering Horace a partnership in the concern ; but 
want of means prevented him from carrying out his idea. 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 49 

"Wliile matters were in this position, lie made the acquaintance 
tli rough Dr. W. Beach, of a young medical graduate, Dr. H. 
D. Shepard, who, it happened, had something over a thousand 
dollars in cash, and who was full of the idea of establishing a 
cheap daily paper, to be sold on the streets; a thing, at that 
time, unknown. He imparted his plans to young Story, and 
the latter visited Horace Greeley, and proposed that they 
should now carry out the enterprise of a printing establish- 
ment, as he could secure the printing of the daily paper con- 
templated by Dr. Shepard, and also of the "weekly Bank-note 
Reporter, which had been offered to him by Mr. S. J. Syl- 
vester, its publisher. Horace, at first, hesitated; but was 
finally induced by the earnestness of Story, to agree to the pro- 
ject ; and the partnership was accordingly formed. They 
hired two rooms, on the south-west corner of Nassau and 
Liberty streets, and the entire amount of their joint capital, 
about $200, was disbursed in obtaining the necessary mate- 
rials. This was not enough, and they had to test their cred- 
it severely besides — Horace, who had a slight acquaintance 
with Mr. James Connor, an extensive type-founder, visited 
him, and endeavored to obtain a six months' credit for $40 
worth of type, and was politely refused. He next went to Mr. 
George Bruce, a wealthy founder on Chambers street, and ob- 
tained the credit solicited; and this kindness secured in after 
years, to Mr. Bruce, the sale of over $50,000 worth of type. 
The name settled upon for the daily, was the Morning 
Post, and the price was fixed at two cents a number. Mr. 
Shepard's original idea was one cent; but he was induced to 
alter it, mainly through the influence of Horace Greeley, who* 
maintained that that was the lowest figure at which it could 
be sold with any profit. The first number was issued on the 
first of Jan., 1833, on a day bitterly cold, and the streets ob- 
structed by snow. The new enterprise, either for want of 
sufficient advertisement, or something else, possibly on account 
of its novelty, did not go off well ; and finally resulted rather 
disastrously. Dr. Shepard, although an original and energetic 



50 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

man, and who seems to have been the legitimate father of the 
idea of cheap daily newspapers, had, in this instance, laid his 
plans unfortunately. His capital appears to have been much 
smaller than his associates supposed, and had melted away, 
before the paper was well before the public. The receipts 
were small ; and there was no money to pay the printers al- 
ready in debt, for materials. The paper died, when scarcely 
a month old, leaving Horace and his associate, considerably 
the worse for the undertaking, and they were only saved from 
bankruptcy by Story's succeeding in inducing an English- 
man named Schols, to buy the remains of the Post, which 
he removed to an office of his own, and attempted to vitalize 
employing Story as his foreman. 

The attempt was abandoned, of course, in a little while ; 
but the money paid for the materials assisted Horace and his 
friend out of their difficulties. Referring to Dr. Shepard, Mr. 
Greeley subsequently said : "He was neither a writer, nor a 
man of affairs; had no editors, no reporters, worth naming; 
no correspondents, and no exchanges even ; he fancied that a 
paper would sell, if remarkable for cheapness, though remark- 
able also, for the absence of every other desirable quality." 

After the collapse of the Post, Story and Greeley con- 
tinued to do the printing for the Bank-note Reporter, and 
also some letter press printing, for the New York lotteries. 
Horace had an offer of a regular situation on the Commercial 
Advertiser, but as the business of his partnership had improv- 
ed, he refused ; and they were beginning to make good head- 
way, when their friendship and business relationship were sud- 
denly and sorrowfully ended by the death of Mr. Story, who 
was drowned, while bathing in the East river, on July 9, 1833. 
Horace deeply regretted the untimely death of his friend, and 
besides other indications of sympathy with the bereaved fam- 
ily, sent to Mr. Story's mother, one-half of all the proceeds of 
outstanding accounts, as soon as the monej' could be collected. 
The vacant place in the concern was filled by Mr. Jonas Win- 
chester, brother-in-law to the deceased, who was accepted by 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD.. 51 

Horace as partner, and the business was carried on as before, 
extending a little slowly, but surely, with every promise of 
permanent prosperity. 

The active, energetic temperament of Horace Greeley and 
his brilliant and capacious mind, were not intended for the or- 
dinary career of routine business. He had greater capabilities 
and nobler aspirations, and although devoting himself with cus- 
tomary industry to the business in hand, his intellectual abili- 
ties and literary tastes led him on to a new enterprize more 
congenial therewith. Consultations followed with his associ- 
ates, and it was finally determined to commence the publica- 
tion of a weekly journal, devoted to general literature and 
news, with a summary of political intelligence — the paper to 
be carried without interfering with the printing business. On 
the 22d March, 1834, the first number of the New- Yorker 
was issued in the shape of a large well-printed folio, with a 
well selected variety of matter, and entirely edited and pre- 
pared by Horace Greeley, the publishing firm consisting of 
three members, Horace Greeley, Jonas Winchester and E. 
Sibbett. The cash capital of the firm was between three and 
four thousand dollars only, but never, perhaps, was an enter- 
prize of the kind started with more conscientious convictions 
of duty as to the manner in which it should be executed. 
Greeley, who performed nearly the whole literary work, had 
no other idea than to produce a valuable public journal, and 
such as would satisfy his own practical ideas on the subject, 
and be in every respect better than any heretofore published 
in the country. It was at first printed upon a large folio 
sheet, and subsequently in two forms, folio and quarto, the 
former at two dollars a year, the latter at three, and it aimed 
to be unbiased in politics, but presenting everything in the 
shape of news, well-selected literary matter, carefully prepared 
editorials on popular subjects, accurate summaries of political 
intelligence, together with an interesting assortment of mis- 
cellaneous paragraphs. It aimed to be in fact a solid and sub- 
stantial newspaper, and expecting patronage from a discrimi- 



52 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

nating and intelligent public. The address of the publishers 
forcibly expressed the character of the enterprise, as will be 
seen from the following: "There is one disadvantage attend- 
ing our debut, which is seldom encountered in the outset of 
periodicals aspiring to general popularity and patronage. 
Ours is not blazoned throughout the land as ' the cheapest peri- 
odical in the world,' 'the largest paper ever published,' or any 
of the captivating clap-traps, wherewith enterprising gentle- 
men, possessed of a convenient stock of assurance, are wont to 
usher in their successive experiments on the gullibility of the 
public. No likenesses of eminent and favorite authors will 
embellish our title, while they disdain to write for our col- 
umns. No 'distinguished literary and fashionable characters' 
have been dragged in to bolster up a rigmarole of preposter- 
ous charlatan pretensions. And indeed so serious is this de- 
ficiency that the first (we may say the only) objection which 
has been started by our most judicious friends in the discus- 
sion of our plans and prospects, has invariably been this : 
'You do not indulge sufficiently in high-sounding preten- 
sions; you cannot succeed without humbug.' Our answer 
has constantly been, 'We shall try,' and in the spirit of this 
determination we respectfully solicit of our fellow citizens the 
extension of that share of patronage which they shall deem 
warranted by our performances rather than our promises." 
Thus announced, the New- Yorker commenced its career, and 
certainly no newspaper was more deserving of success. Of 
the first edition, about one hundred copies were sold ; this 
was doubled at the second, and for. a period of three months, 
the increase averaged one hundred copies per week. By Sep- 
tember the circulation was twenty-five hundred, and the sec- 
ond volume opened with a list of forty-five hundred. The 
popularity of the paper rapidly increased, and Horace Gree- 
ley, its editor, became known and respected throughout the 
country. 

The New- Yorker was not destined, notwithstanding its 
undoubted merit, to be either a profitable or permanent paper. 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 53 

but the first tsvo or three years of its career were probably the 
happiest Horace Greeley had yet known. He was full of oc- 
cupation, and in companionship with the subjects most con- 
genial to his tastes, and his strong versatile mind, and vast 
general information, found free expression in the columns of a 
literary and independent journal. He wrote articles on the 
most serious and important subjects, and yet at the same time 
found opportunity for occasional efforts in poetry and imagi- 
native sketches, but it was in plain practice, forcible prose 
that Horace Greeley has from the first distinguished himself; 
and it was principally for the great ability of its editorials and 
its remarkable accuracy in political information and statistics, 
that the JVew- Yorker obtained a peculiar character and repu- 
tation. In October, 1837, an editorial appeared on the condi- 
tion of the paper from which we make the following extract: 
" Ours is a plain story, and it shall be plainly told. The A^ew- 
Yorker was established with very moderate expectations of 
pecuniary advantage, but with strong hopes that its location at 
the head-quarters of intelligence for the continent, and its cheap- 
ness, would insure it if well conducted, such a patronage as 
would be ultimately adequate at least to the bare expenses of its 
publication. Starting with scarce a shadow of patronage, it 
had four thousand five hundred subscribers at the close of the 
first year, obtained at an outlay of $3,000 beyond the income in 
that period. This did not materially disappoint the publish- 
ers' expectations. Another year passed, and their subscription 
increased to seven thousand, with a further outlay beyond all re- 
ceipts of $2,000. A third year was commenced with two edi- 
tions — a folio and quarto — of our journal, and at its close, their 
compound subscriptions amounted to near nine thousand five hun- 
dred, yet our receipts had again fallen two thousand dollars be- 
hind our absolutely necessary expenditures. Such was our situa- 
tion at the commencement of this year of ruin, and we found 
ourselves wholly unable to continue our former reliance on the 
honor and ultimate good faith of our backward subscribers — two 
thousand five hundred of them were stricken from our lists, and 



54 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

every possible retrenchment in our expenditures effected. With 
the exercise of the most parsimonious frugality, and aided by the 
extreme kindness and generous confidence of our friends, we have 
barely and with great difficulty kept our bark afloat. For the 
future we have no resource but in the justice and generosity of 
our patrons. Our humble portion of this world's goods has long 
since been swallowed up in the all- devouring. Both of the edi- 
tor's original associates in the undertaking have abandoned it 
with loss, and those who now fill their places have invested to the 
full amount of their ability. Not a farthing has been drawn 
from the concern by any one save for services rendered, and the 
allowance to the proprietors having charge respectively of the edi- 
torial and publishing departments, has been far less than their 
services would have commanded elsewhere. The last six months 
have been far more disastrous than any which preceded them, as 
we have continued to fall behind our expenses without correspond- 
ing increase of patronage. A large amount is indeed due us ; 
but we find its collection almost impossible, except in inconsidera- 
ble portions, and at a ruinous expense. All appeals to the hon- 
esty and good faith of the delinquents seem utterly fruitless ; as 
a last resource, therefore, and one beside which we have no alter- 
native, we hereby announce that, and from this date the price of 
the JYew- Yorker will be $3 per annum for the folio, and $4 
for the quarto edition." The article closes with an earnest appeal 
to the friends of the paper, and to those indebted to it to come 
forward promptly and assist in its support. During the career of 
the JYew- Yorker, some noteworthy events occurred in the life of 
its leading editor, which we will mention shortly, but we have 
now to speak of the final collapse of that journal. Through 
many fluctuations it maintained itself fairly until the great com- 
mercial convulsion of 1837, when its financial condition became 
threatening and embarrassing as is indicated in the editorial 
above given, and during the greater part of this year the paper 
was conducted with a net loss of about $100 a week. It was in 
vain that the editor appealed to delinquents ; it was in vain that 
the JYew- Yorker was really the most substantial journal in the 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 55 

country, nothing apparently could turn the tide in its favor, and 
Mr. Greeley, who was now the sole proprietor, having dis- 
solved partnership the preceeding year, found his perplexities so 
great that as he stated, " If any one would have taken my busi- 
ness and debts off my hands upon my giving him iny note foi 
$2,000, I would have jumped at the chance, and tried to work 
out the debt by setting type, if nothing better offered." Indeed, 
when we consider the struggles and annoyances to which he was 
subjected at this time, it seems evident that if the first year or so 
of the JVew- Yorker's existence formed one of the happiest per- 
iods in his life, its closing years were among the most trying. It 
is unnecessary to go into details as to their incidents, and we will 
simply state the New- Yorker ceased to exist on the 20th of 
September, 1841, being merged in the Weekly Tribune , estab- 
lished some time before. Alluding to the suspension of the 
paper, its publisher writes as follows : "When I at length stop- 
ped the New- Yorker, though poor enough, I provided for mak- 
ing good all I owed to its subscribers, who had paid in advance 
and shut up its books whereon were inscribed some $10,000, 
owed me in sums of $1 to $10 each, by men to whose service I 
had faithfully devoted the best years of my life — years that 
though full of labor and frugal care might have been happy had 
they not been made wretched by those men's dishonesty. They 
took my journal and probably read it ; they promised to pay for 
it, and defaulted, leaving me to pay my paper-maker, type- 
founder, journeymen, etc., as I could. My only requittal was a 
sorely achieved, but wholesome lesson. I had been thoroughly 
burned out, only saving my books in the great Ann street fire, 
August 12, 1835; I was burned out again in February, 1845, 
and while the destruction was complete, and the insurance but 
partial, I had the poor consolation that the account books of the 
New-Yorker, which I had never opened since I first laid them 
away, but which had been an eye-sore and a reminder of evil 
days whenever I stumbled upon them, were at length dissolved in 
smoke and flame, and lost to sight forever 



56 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

One important event in the life of Horace Greeley, ■which 
occurred during the career of the New- Yorker, was his mar- 
riage, which was thus announced in the issue of that paper in 
July 15, 1836: "In Immanuel church, Warrenton, North 
Carolina, on Tuesday morning, 5th instant, by Rev. William 
Norwood, Mr. Horace Greeley, editor of the JVew- Yorker, 
to Miss Mary G. Cheney, of Warrenton, formerly of this city." 

The acquaintance between the parties commenced at the 
GrVaham House, New York ; and when the lady, who was by 
profession a teacher, had taken an engagement in North Car- 
olina, it was carried on by correspondence, with the happy re- 
sult stated. During the wedding tour, Horace Greeley first 
visited Washington, and gave some interesting sketches of the 
city Congress, in letters to his paper. It might be expected 
that when deriving a poor and precarious livelihood from a 
weekly paper, the vigorous, affluent mind of Horace Greeley 
would naturally seek some additional occupation by which his 
income could be increased ; and such was the case. He wrote 
editorials for several of the Whig dailies and other journals, 
and in March, 1838, he started the Jeffersonian, a paper is- 
sued weekly for campaign purposes, and of course entirely 
political in its character. The great Whig victory which 
marked the Fall election in 1837, stimulated that party to re- 
tain, if possible, the ascendency, particularly as the next elec- 
tion involved Governor and Representatives in Congress, and 
to aid in accomplishing the object, it was determined to pub- 
lish in Albany, throughout the year 1838, a cheap weekly pa- 
per. Mr. Thurlow Weed, editor of the Albany evening Jour- 
nal, suggested to his associates that Horace Greeley was the 
proper person to edit the paper, and he and Mr. Lewis Bene- 
dict, also of Alban} r , went to New York to endeavor to effect 
an arrangement. They offered one thousand dollars for the 
service, and Mr. Greeley finally accepted, although it would 
necessarily involve his spending a large portion of his time in 
Albany. The first number of the Jeffersonian was issued on 
the 3d of March, and the others followed in regular succession ; 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 57 

but this small paper did not fully occupy his time, and he 
wrote editorials for the evening Journal, and also made up 
condensed reports of the debates in the Assembly, for its col- 
ums. The year was one most laborious to Mr. Greeley, as he 
was the animating spirit of two papers, widely apart in char- 
acter ; one published in New York and the other in Albany, 
necessitating a constant traveling between the two cities, while 
he was compelled to mingle in exciting political scenes. As a 
campaign paper, the Jeffersonian proved a popular success; 
its circulation reached about tifteen thousand, and the success 
of the Whig party in New York at the next election, although 
defeated in other States, has been ascribed to the influence of 
this paper, the publication of which terminated with the cam- 
paign. 

The memorable campaign of 1840, unavoidably drew the 
best political writer of the day into the vortex, and he was 
again solicited to assume the management of a new campaign 
paper, in the interests of Gen. Harrison, against Martin Yan 
Buren, for the Presidency. He started the paper with his 
usual energy. It having been decided that fifteen copies 
should he sent for the full term of six months, for five dollars, 
the first number issuing on May 1st. The influx of subscrip- 
tions was so great, that Mr. Greeley's partner, who thought 
the price ruinously low, retired from the concern and left him 
alone to edit and publish the JYeiv- Yorker and the new paper, 
which had received the title of the Log Cabin. The success 
of the campaign sheet was astonishing ; the weekly issues 
mounted up to eighty thousand, and might have been largely 
increased, if the proprietors had had the necessary facilities; 
even after the election he continued its publication for over a 
year, with a circulation of ten thousand. During the career 
of this paper, and throughout the exciting scenes of 1840, Mr. 
Greeley performed an immense amount of work ; for besides 
conducting two newspapers he participated actively in the 
movements of the campaign as a public speaker, and a mem- 
ber of various committees. His enthusiasm in the struggle 



58 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 

•was fully excited, and yet neither in debate nor with his pen 
did he descend to bitter partisanship or coarse personalities, 
and his conduct is aptly illustrated in a reply to a correspond- 
ent, in which he said : " Articles assailing the personal char- 
acter of Mr. Tan Buren or any of his supporters, cannot be pub- 
lished in the Cabin ;" and it is fair to say that this spirit has 
always been characteristic of his public career. 

The publication of the Jeffersonian and the Log Cabin, 
were, so to speak, brief incidents in the editorial services of 
Horace Greeley ; yet, in reviewing his career, they become 
events of importance, as they illustrate the extraordinary vigor 
and versatility of his abilities, and as campaign papers pub- 
lished for a specific purpose, they are among the most forcible 
that are to be found in political literature, and are all the more 
remarkable when we consider the other matters which engaged 
his attention during their publication. Indeed, they and the 
JYew- Yorker were perhaps necessary, as preparatory experi- 
ence and discipline, to the mind destined to originate and con- 
trol the powerful journal which succeeded them. The A^ew- 
Yorker was almost entirely edited by Mr. Greeley alone, 
particularly during its earlier years. In 1839, Mr. Park Ben- 
jamin contributed to its columns, and was for a short time 
regularly connected with it; and subsequently, Mr. Henry J. 
.Raymond, a young graduate of Burlington College, Vermont, 
entered the office as assistant editor, having previously contrib- 
uted to the paper some spirited sketches over the signature of 
"Fantome," and this was the first editorial engagement of Mr. 
Raymond in the city in which he became so distinguished a 
member of the press. 

We now approach the most memorable event, in some re- 
spects, in the life of Horace Greeley, namely, the founding 
of the New York Tribune; for so famous has his name be- 
come in connection with that journal, that his previous career 
is almost forgotten. He is known from one end of the country 



FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD. 59 

to the other ; but the great journal he has founded is insepar- 
ably connected with his name, which sounds most familiar in 
the ears of the people when stated as " Horace Greeley, of 
the New York Tribune" 



CHAPTER H. 

HORACE GREELEY AND THE TRIBUNE. 




HE first public announcement, respecting the New York 
Tribune, appeared in the Log Cabin of April 3rd, 18-41, 
when the following prospectus was published : 

NEW YORK TRIBUNE. 

On Saturday, the tenth of April instant, the subscriber will pub- 
lish the first number of a new morning journal of politics, litera- 
ture and general intelligence. 

The Tribune, as its name imports, will labor to advance the in- 
terests of the people, and to promote their moral, social and polit- 
ical well being. The immoral and degrading police reports, adver- 
tisements and other matter, which have been allowed to disgrace 
the columns of our leading penny papers, will he carefully excluded 
from this, and no exertion spared to render it worthy of the hearty 
approval of the virtuous and refined, and a welcome visitant of the 
family fireside. 

Earnestly believing that the political revolution, which has 
called William Henry Harrison to the Chief Magistracy of the na- 
tion, was a triumph of right, reason and public good over error 
and sinister ambition, the Tribune will give to the new Adminis- 
tration a frank and cordial, hut manly and independent support; 
judging it always by its acts, and commending those only, so far 
as they shall seem calculated to subserve the great end of all gov- 
ernment — the welfare of the people. 

The Tribune will be published every morning, on a fair royal 
sheet (size of the Log Cabin and evening Signal,) and trans- 
mitted to its city subscribers at the low price of one cent per copy. 
Mail subscribers $4 per annum. It will contain the news by the 
morning's Southern mail, which is contained in no other penny 
paper. Subscriptions are respectfully solicited by 

Horace Greeley, 
30 Ann street. 



62 HORACE GREELEY 

In accordance with tins announcement, on the tenth of 
April, 1841 the first number of the New York Tribune was 
issued, and, as it happened, the character of the day M-as of 
the gloomiest description — the mournful pageant in honor of 
the memory of President Harrison, just dead, combined with 
the dreariest weather, imparted a gloomy aspect to the city ; 
while the bitter cold and driving sleet, made the streets almost 
deserted, and it was altogether a most inauspicious day, ap- 
parently for the commencement of a new enterprise. Yet, on 
such a morning, was the first appearance of the Tribune made, 
selling at one cent a number. Horace Greeley had been 
incited to the undertaking, by political friends ; their idea 
being that a cheap daily, adapted principally to the working 
classes, was needed in the city, and would pay ; and yet the field 
of journalism in New York was by no means then unoccupied. 
The Sun and the Herald were cheap papers, two cents each, 
per number; both Democratic in tendency. Besides these, 
there were the Courier, Enquirer, New York American 
Express, Commercial Advertiser, the Evening Post and 
Journal of Commerce, all of them at $10.00 per annum, and 
the Signal, Tattler and Star, cheap papers, all of them, we 
believe, neutral in politics ; twelve in ali, while the total 
number of newspapers and periodicals published in the city, 
was one hundred. The Tribune, consequently, of avowed po- 
litical character, had to fight its way from the outset, and win 
popular favor by deserving it, not merely as an exponent of polit- 
ical principles, but as a live, energetic and reliable newspaper. 
The editorial staff was small, but effective; Mr. Greeley being 
the principle, and Henry J. Raymond first assistant, while the 
business department was in charge of Mr. George M. Snow. 
The actual cash capital of the publisher, was very small in- 
deed, but then he was well known and generally respected, 
particularly in his own party, and had many friends, but the 
only loan which he solicited, was $1,000, borrowed from Mr. 
James Coggeshall, who took a warm interest in the enterprise, 
and with Mr. Noah Cook, mainly obtained the list of 500 sub- 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 63 

scribers, with which the Tribune started. Mr. Greeley thus 
describes his affairs at this period : " I had type, but no press- 
es, and had to hire ray press-work done by the ' token ' ; my 
folding and mailing must have staggared me, but for the cir- 
cumstance that I had few papers to mail, and not very many 
to fold. The lack of the present machinery of railroads and 
expresses, was a grave obstacle to the circulation of my paper 
outside of the city's suburbs — but I think its paid-for issues 
were two thousand at the end of the week, and that they 
thenceforth increased pretty steadily, at the rate of five hun- 
dred per week, till they reached ten thousand. My current 
expenses for the first week, were about $525, my receipts 
ninety-two dollars ; and though the outgoes steadily, merit- 
ably increased, the income increased in a still larger ratio, till 
it nearly balanced the former." The Tribune was indeed suc- 
cessful, nearly from the start, notwithstanding that in these 
early days of its existence, it encountered a violent opposition 
from the Sun, and at one time, the proprietor of that paper 
attempted to organize a conspiracy to crush out the Tribune. 
The source of the enmity being the rapid growth of the lat- 
ter, and the certain indications that it would soon overshadow 
and supplant its cotemporary. An attempt was made to bribe 
some of the carriers of the Tribune to abandon their routes, 
but this only succeeded in the cases of two men, who were al- 
so carriers of the Sun. Next, the newsdealers were threat- 
ened with being deprived of the Sun, if they were found sell- 
ing the Tribune, and finally, as this did not succeed, employ- 
ees were instigated to thrash the Tribune carriers, and, if 
possible, demoralize them by violence ; but as protective and 
retaliatory measures were promptly adopted, this course did 
not pay; and the foolish antagonism was finally abandoned. 
In this little matter, as in others more important in its career, 
the Tribune sought neither compromise nor quarter from the 
enemy. As a newspaper, fearlessness, energy and enterprise 
were its characteristics ; then, as they have always been— and in- 
deed the enmity of the Sun, rather assisted its early career. The 
advertisements increased rapidly ; and with the enlargement 



64 HORACE GREELEY 

of liis means, the publisher secured new presses, and other fa- 
cilities, and the success of the enterprise became established. 
But, notwithstanding the natural gifts of Horace Greeley, he 
was and is deficient in those qualities necessary to manage 
successfully, the financial and practical details of a business 
establishment, and probably the Tribune could never have 
attained the position it subsequently did, had it not been that 
this want, in the management of the Tribune was supplied, 
when Mr. Greeley formed a co-partnership with Thomas Mc- 
Elrath. Indeed, Mr. Greeley acknowledges this himself, when 
he says : "But I was not made for a publisher ; indeed, no 
man was ever qualified, at once to edit and to publish a daily 
paper such as it must be, to live in these times; and it was 
not until Mr. Thomas McElrath— whom I had barely known 
as a member of the publishing firm over whose store 1 first set 
type in this city, but who was now a lawyer, in good standing 
and practice — made me a voluntary and wholly unexpected 
proffer of partnership in my still struggling but hopeful enter- 
prise, that it might be considered fairly on its feet. He offered 
to invest two thousand dollars as an equivalent to whatever I 
had in the business, and to devote his time and energies to its 
management ; on the basis of perfect equality in ownership, 
and in sharing the proceeds. This, I very gladly accepted ; 
and from that hour my load was palpably lightened." On 
Saturday morning, July 31st, the notice of the co-partnership 
appeared editorially in the Tribune and the partnership thus 
consumated, lasted over. ten years. Mr. McElrath was an ex- 
cellent business man ; prompt, energetic and methodical ; and 
the business affairs of the Tribune were soon reduced to clear- 
ness and order, and it was not long before it was not only one 
of the best edited, but one of the best conducted papers in the 
country; always alive to the public demands, and taking an 
immediate advantage of every improvement, in the means of 
communication throughout the country, and every new facility 
for the obtaining and transmission of news. The first issue of 
the weekly Tribune appeared on the 20th of September, 1841, 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 65 

and in this, the JYew Yorker and Log Cabin were finally 
merged ; the former having existed seven years and a half, and 
the latter, about eighteen months. 

With Mr. McElrath to manage the business, Mr. Greeley 
•was left free for editorial labor, and the columns of the Tri- 
bune seemed to acquire additional force and interest, and 
fairly rung in the ears of the people, with a force of idea and 
Saxon, hitherto almost new in American journalism. The 
natural bent of Mr. Greeley's mind was perhaps towards pol- 
itics, but he had far too much newspaper sense to overlook the 
other requirements of a daily journal. He aimed to make the 
Tribune a leading political journal, thoroughly reliable in its 
information and statistics; but he did not omit the other es- 
sential departments, and the necessity of making the contents 
varied and interesting to the general public. Attention was 
paid to the progress in literature, philosophy and science; and 
many able notices and reviews appeared from the graceful pen 
of Henry J. Raymond, while liberal extracts were made from 
new works of importance ; some material was also provided for 
the lovers of imaginative works, and as an instance, we may 
mention that Barnaby Rudge was published entire in the first 
volume. The animated and forcible reports of public lectures, 
from the pen of Mr. Raymond, were also a feature of influ- 
ence. The Millerite convention which met in November, and 
which attracted a good deal of attention, was fully and impartial- 
ly reported ; and the celebrated McLeod trial, at Utica, was 
graphically sketched by Mr. Greeley himself, in reports from 
four to eight columns a day. The industry of the writers on 
the Tribune at this time was remarkable, and there often ap- 
peared between seventy and eighty editorial paragraphs in a 
single issue, and Mr. Greeley generally wrote himself about 
three columns a day, while his assistant displayed nearly equal 
assiduity. The editorials were nearly all written by Mr. Gree- 
ley, and bore the unmistakable indications of his style and 
ideas. Apart even from political subjects, they were all essen- 
tially practical and pervaded by a vigorous originality that gave 



66 HORACE GREELEY 

them then, as it has since, a peculiar and distinctive character. 
Two or three months after the commencement of the paper, 
there appeared a series of articles upon the state of municipal 
affairs, with clear, sensible suggestions toward retrenchment 
and reform, which excited no small attention at the time. 
Shortly afterwards, the editor illustrated his independence by 
denouncing the moral atmosphere of the theater as unwhole- 
some, and advising his renders not to visit such places. This 
course, so singular in a daily public journal, as might be ex- 
pected, raised a storm about his ears, which, however, did not 
disconcert him a whit, and his rejoinders to the attacks of other 
journals, if less violent, were superior in force and reasoning, 
while the whole matter shows the conscientiousness and inde- 
pendence of his mind. Indeed, the Tribune was not then, 
nor has it been since, a time-serving or truckling sheet, for Mr. 
Greeley is one who recognizes serious duties in the manage- 
ment of a daily journal, and we think that seldom, if ever, has 
an article appeared in its columns, dictated by mere policy, ex- 
pedient, or a pandering spirit, towards some public abuse. 

But while the Tribune on one hand attacked the theaters, it on 
the other, informed the different religious systems that it was inde- 
pendent of any of them ; nor would it be governed by their views. 
Objection having been made to the advertisement of certain heter- 
odox publications, and Mr. Greeley then squarely defended his 
position : "As to our friend," he said, " who complains of cer- 
tain theological works which do not square with his opinions, we 
must tell him plainly that he is unreasonable. No other paper 
that we ever heard of, establishes any test of the orthodoxy of 
works advertised in its columns. * * * * If one were 
to attempt a discrimination, where would he end? One man con- 
siders Universalism immoral, but another is equally positive that 
Armenianism is so, while a third holds the same bad opinion of 
Calvinism. Who shall decide between them. Certainly not the 
editor of a daily newspaper, unless he prints it avowedly under 
the patronage of a particular sect. Our friend inquires whether 
we should advertise infidel books, also? We answer, that if any 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 67 

one should offer an advertisement of lewd, ribald, indecent, blas- 
phemous, or law-prohibited books, we should claim the right to 
reject it, but a work no otherwise objectionable than as to contro- 
verting the christian record and doctrine, would not be objected to 
by us. True Christianity neither fears refutation nor dreads dis- 
cussion — or as Jefferson has forcibly said, ' error of opinion may 
be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.' " Among the 
political subjects of general interest, which were discussed and 
supported in the Tribune at this time, were protection to home 
industry, opposition to repudiation, economy in public affairs and 
kindred topics. In politics, the paper was Whig, and appealed 
in its early days to that party for support. It expressed confi- 
dence in Mr. Tyler, who succeeded Gen. Harrison as President ; 
that he would satisfy the views of the Whigs, and was slow to ac- 
knowledge the fact that there was no foundation for such a hope. 
He inherited Gen. Harrison's cabinet, but his veto of the bill char- 
tering the United States Bank, compelled its members to resign, 
and although Mr. Webster, as Secretary of State, remained for 
several months after his colleagues had left, and thereby excited the 
wrath of the Whigs, yet he too, finally, was compelled to leave, 
and the breach between the President and the Whigs became broad 
and deep. Mr. Greei^y defended Mr. Webster in remaining in 
office after his colleagues, which offended many of his political 
friends, and afforded a margin for attack on the Tribune for 
several years. The paper justified Mr. Webster on the ground 
that by remaining in office, he could effect a consummation of the 
Ashburton negotiations, and several years afterwards, Mr. Gree- 
ley, in explaining his course in connection with this matter, stated 
that in December, 1841, he visited Washington upon assurance 
that John Tyler and his advisers were ready to return to the Whig 
party, and that he could be of service in bringing about a recon- 
ciliation between the administration and Whig congressmen. 
He denied that he ever proposed to connect himself with the ad- 
ministration, except upon the ground that it should be an entire- 
ly Whig administration. " Finally, I declined utterly and abso- 
lutely to connect myself with the cause of the administration, the 



68 HORACE GREELE7 

moment I became satisfied, as I did, during that visit, that the 
chief of the government did not desire a reconciliation upon the 
basis of sustaining Whig principles and Whig measures with the 
party he had so deeply wronged, but was treacherously coquet- 
inc with loco-Focoism, and fooled with the idea of are-election." 
Indeed, this explanation, which was given in 1845, should have 
been unnecessary to his friends, even in 1841. 

With the close of the year 1841, it was evident that the Tri- 
bune had achieved a brilliant success as a newspaper, and before 
its first anniversary it had a subscription list of something over 
twelve thousand, and with a daily average of about thirteen col- 
umns of advertisements. Its existence, as a journal, was placed 
on permanent foundations, and thenceforth its career was one of 
nearly unbroken prosperity. 

With the establishment of the Tribune, Mr. Greeley, who 
was already well known, became a prominent public man, and a 
minute narrative of his career and that of his paper, would ex- 
ceed the proper bounds of this sketch. We will, therefore, in the 
following pages, confine ourselves more particularly to the more 
important events in his life, and nearly all of which are closely iden- 
tified with the history of the Tribune, for, to an unusual degree, 
that journal has always been marked with a distinctive individu- 
ality. It never has been and is not now, a mere mouth-piece of 
a political party, and while most public journals are impersonal in 
tone and character, this has always breathed the spirit of! its lead- 
ing editor ; been the exponent of his ideas and his convictions, and 
these have always formed its guiding policy. The influence that the 
paper has exerted on public opinion, throughout some of the most 
important epochs in our national history, has been tremendous, and 
it is astonishing to realize that this influence may fairly be re- 
ferred to one mind for cause and vitality. It is this fact that ren- 
ders it quite truthful to say that Horace Greeley is one of the 
most influential citizens ever produced by the American nation. 
His eminence and success are not attributable to subserviency and 
studied acquiescence in popular movements. He has never been a 
passive instrument in the hands of others, but has always pursued 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 59 

his own course with rigorous independence of thought and action. 
He has always been aggressive and fearless in enforcing his con- 
victions, and instead of being a follower he has been an origin- 
ator and a leader in many social reforms and political movements, 
while not unfrequently his conscientious tenacity of his own ideas 
has placed him in antagonism with vast, numbers of his friends 
and admirers. 

In the Fall of 1841, Horace Greeley through the Tribune, 
began to speak his mind in his usual earnest and forcible style, 
on the great question of Social Iteform, particularly in refer- 
ence to the improvement of the condition of the laboring 
classes. The socialistic ideas of Charles Fourier lay at the ba- 
sis of Mr. Greeley's ideas on the subject, but with certain im- 
portant modifications, and he was animated by no desire to fo- 
ment a quarrel between the rich and poor, but by the noble 
conviction, that enlightenment and civilization could so admin- 
ister the social state, that destitution and poverty could be blot- 
ted out under a free government, and the unchristian paradox 
which places wealth and penury in juxtaposition, might be for- 
ever expunged from American society. His interest in this 
subject, originated from the natural benevolence of his nature, 
and the practical experience he acquired in the destitution and 
other evils existing among the laboring classes, by personal 
service on Ward-relief committees, during the winter of 1837- 
38. He then resided in the Sixth Ward, a part of the city where 
there was then as now, an unusual degree of squalor, want and 
misery ; besides, many infamous dens of vice. The want of 
employment and the destitution which existed all over the city, 
Were felt in aggravated form here, and in December, a public 
meeting was held, and committees appointed to canvass the 
Ward, and collect funds for the relief of the suffering; and as 
Mr. Greeley could give but little money, he gave time instead, 
serving for several days on the visiting committees. During 
these days he saw every phase of poverty, and what impressed 
him most, was the spectacle of robust, intelligent and decent 
men and women, deprived of the means of subsistence, owing 



70 HORACE GREELEY 

to the absolute impossibility of getting work. " "We do not 
want alms," he heard them say; "we are not beggars; we 
hate to sit here day by day, idle and useless ; help us to work 
— we want no other help ; why is it that we have nothing to 
do?" These questions and entreaties rung through the 
thoughtful brain of Horace Greeley years after the time he 
heard them first ; and during the early part of 18-10, he com- 
menced a series of articles in the New-Yorker, under this 
caption: "What shall be done for the laborer?" and during 
the same year he formed the acquaintance of Mr. Albert Bris- 
bane, who, more than any other man, introduced into this 
country, Fourier's ideas of industrial association. 

Mr. Brisbane was a young man of considerable general cul- 
ture ; a native of Batavia, N. Y., and who had traveled abroad 
extensively. In Paris he became acquainted with the schools 
of socialists, called respectively after the names of their found- 
ers, St. Simon and Charles Fourier, and was much impressed 
with their teachings ; and shortly after his return from Eu- 
rope, prepared and published a work on Fourier's Social Sys- 
tem, expounding and commending its principles, and subse- 
quently published a series of articles in the Tribune, on the 
same subject, commencing in 1841. Mr. Greeley preferred 
the ideas of Fourier with certain modifications to those of the 
other Social reformers, Robert Owen and St. Simon. We give 
in his own words, the more important elements of his social 
creed : 

"I believe that there need be and should be no paupers, 
who are not infantile, idiotic or disabled, and that civilized so- 
ciety pays more for the support of able-bodied pauperism, than 
the necessary cost of its extirpation. 

"I believe that they babble idly, and libel Providence, 'who 
talk of surplus labor, or the inadequacy of capital, to supply 
employment to all who need it. Labor is often most required 
and best paid, where capital is scarcest. 

" I believe that the efficiency of human effort, is enormously, 
ruinously diminished by what I term social anarchy. That is 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 71 

to say, we spend half our energies in building fences, and pro- 
viding safeguards against each other's roguery, while our labor 
is rendered inefficient and inadequately productive by bad 
management, imperfect implements, a deficiency of power, 
and the inability of our producers, to command and wield the 
most effective machinery. 

"Inefficiency in production, is paralleled by waste in consump- 
tion. Insects and vermin devour at least one-fourth of the 
farmer's harvests, which inadequate fertilizing, and unskillful 
cultivation, have already reduced far below the proper aggre- 
gate. 

"Youth should be a season of instructive industry, in the 
useful art, a3 well as in letters, and the sciences mastered by 
their aid. Each child should be trained to skill efficiency, in 
productive labor. The hours of children should be alternately 
devoted to labor, study and recreation — say two hours to each 
before, and a like allotment after dinner, each secular day. 
Thus, each child would grow up an adept, not merely in let- 
ters, but in arts — a skillful worker, as well as a proficient in 
the lessons of the school-room — able to do well, not one thing 
only, but many things — familiar with the mechanical as well 
as the agricultural processes, and acquainted with the use of 
steam, and other direction of machinery. 

"Isolation is at war with efficiency, and progress and the 
poor work at perpetual disadvantage in isolation, because of 
the inadequacy of their means. Let us suppose that four or 
five hundred heads of families propose to embark in agricul- 
ture : each buys his little farm, his furniture, his implements, 
animals, seeds, fertilizers, etc., and — though he has purchased 
nothing that he does not urgently need — he finds his means 
utterly exhausted, and his farm and future exertions heavily 
burdened by debt. He hopes, and labors to clear off the mort- 
gage, but flood and drought, frost and fire work against him ; 
his poverty compels him to do without many implements, and 
to plough or team with inadequate force, and he struggles on, 
till his strength fails, and he dies oppressed with debt — such 
is the common lot. 



72 HORACE GREELEY 

Association would have these unite to purchase, inhabit and 
cultivate a common domain ; say of two thousand acres, whereby 
these advantages over the isolated system would be realized, one- 
fourth of the land required under the old system would be found 
abundant. It could be far better allotted and appropriated to 
grain, grass, fruits, forest, gardens, etc. The draught animals 
that were far too few when dispersed among five hundred owners on 
bo many different farms, would be amply sufficient for a common 
domain. Steam or water power could now be economically em- 
ployed for a hundred purposes, where the small farmer could not 
think of employing it. Industry would find new and powerful 
incentives in the observation and praise or censure of the entire 
community ; uniforms, banners and music, with the rivalry of 
bands of competing workers, would provide emulation, and lighten 
labor ; while such recreations as dramas, concerts, readings, etc., 
— now utterly beyond the reach of rural workers — would give a 
new zest to life. At present our youth escape from rural indus- 
try where they can — not that they really hate work, but that they 
find their leisure hours even duller and less edurable than those 
they give to rugged toil. 

Mr. Greeley, it can be seen, differed very materially from the 
French reformers, and his socialistic ideas were peculiarly in ref- 
erence to the American country and its people. His system in- 
volved the improvement of the condition of the laboring classes in 
the cities, but was more specially intended for the development 
of rural pursuits, and of the boundless agricultural resources 
of the country. Indeed when we consider the limitless expanse 
of woodland and prairie that lies unimproved throughout the 
States, it seems evident that want or involuntary idleness in this 
country are inexcusable social blemishes, and their permanent 
eradication is to be found in the cultivation of the face of nature, 
the natural occupation of man, and it is this practical idea that 
underlies and pervades the social reform ideas of Mr. Greeley. 

With the opening of the year 1842, the subject of socialism 
commenced to attract more general attention. A number of gen- 
tlemen associated themselves for the purpose of forwarding the 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 73 

new system, and paid for the right to use a column's space in 
the Tribune, with articles on the subject, nearly all of which 
were from the pen of Mr. Brisbane. The Tribune also occas- 
ionally discussed the topic editorially, and it gradually became 
one of much public prominence, particularly as some of the leading 
newspapers attacked the Tribune for its favoring the scheme, 
and sharp discussions resulted. The Future, a weekly paper 
entirely devoted to Fourier's ideas, was started, and maintained 
for a month or so, being published by Greeley & Co., and fin- 
ally collapsed for want of support ; subsequently the Harbinger, 
also a weekly, was issued, and was maintained, not without loss, 
for several years. The system was also supported by several 
treaties and books published in New York, discussing its princi- 
ples, the most forcible of which was a compact work by Mr. Park 
Godwin, entitled, " Democracy, Pacific and Constructive." The 
result of all this agitation respecting industrial associations was 
more than one attempt to reduce principles to practice by the es- 
tablishment of rural communities in accordance with the new sys- 
tem. The first was that at Brook Farm in Boxbury, Mass., 
about ten miles from Bostcn. The persons interested in this en- 
terprise were of the better class, and of education and culture, 
and who had embraced socialism with enthusiasm, confidently be- 
lieving it to be the means by which a higher and purer social 
state might be attained. They purchased a farm of about two 
hundred acres, added some new buildings to those already on it, 
and so commenced their experiment, which was not destined to 
prove a success — a school was started and maintained, and the 
community was increased by some new members, but it failed to 
achieve a pecuniary success out of the farm, owing probably to a 
lack of agricultural skill, and after an existence extending through 
five or six years, the Brook Farm society, finally dissolved in 
1847 or '48. 

From New York, two parties of socialist pioneers set forth to 
practically test Fourier's ideas — one of them purchased a tract 
of land containing about two thousand three hundred acres in 
Pike county, Pa., near the mouth of the Lackawaxen, naming 



74 HORACE GREELEY 

their estate " Sylvania." This experiment was also unsuccessful, 
and was abandoned in 1845, about two years after its establish- 
ment. The other company entitled the " North American Phal- 
anx," Avas principally formed at Albany, and had many respecta- 
ble and competent mechanics and farmers among its members. 
The location chosen was in Shrewsbury, Monmouth county, New 
Jersey, their farm being six hundred and seventy- threo acres. 
Many subscriptions were obtained in aid of this movement in 
New York ; not less than about one hundred thousand dollars 
altogether was invested there, and a large wooden dwelling was 
erected, also some barns and a fruit house. Large orchards were 
planted, and the land was highly improved by diligent efforts. 
Unfortunately the fruit house was burned, and this, with some 
other discouraging circumstances, led to the dissolution of the so- 
ciety, and the property was sold at public auction in tracts of 
from ten to eighty acres, the stockholders each receiving back 
about sixty-five per cent, of his original investment with interest. 
This society was formed in 1843, and dissolved in 1850, being 
the last experiment of the kind attempted in this part of the 
country. 

The advocacy of the doctrine of association by the Tribune, 
naturally involved it in controversy with other journals, and 
the discussion that acquired the most public note, was that be- 
tween Mr. Greeley and Mr. H.J. Raymond, in 1846 — Mr. 
Raymond having left the Tribune some time before and joined 
the Courier and Enquirer at the solicitation of Col. Webb, 
its editor. The discussion originated from a letter on the sub- 
feet of Social Reform, sent to the Courier by Mr. Brisbane, 
which that paper agreed to publish, provided the Tribune 
would give place to its reply. This was declined, but the ed- 
itor of the Courier was challenged to a public discussion of 
the whole subject; and this proposition was finally accepted, 
the terms being that each paper in replying, was to copy the 
previous article of the other, and the debate was opened on 
the 20th of November, by the Tribune, and lasted six months, 
being marked with a good deal of spirit and ability, and at- 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 75 

tracted no small share of public attention, and its close was 
practically the end of the subject in the New York press. 

The second year of the Tribune opened with about twelve 
thousand subscribers, at an increased price of nine cents per 
week, or two cents for single numbers, and at the same time, 
Messrs. Greeley & McElrath commenced the publication of 
the American Laborer, a monthly magazine, principally de- 
voted to the protection of home industries. During this year 
Charles Dickens visited the United States, and Mr. Greeley 
favored strongly the establishment of international copyright, 
which Mr. Dickens was advocating. When the celebrated 
" American Notes" made their appearance, and excited a storm 
of bitter and unfair criticism, the Tribune was among the 
few papers that gave the book just and favorable mention. 
"How a writer," said Mr. Greeley, "could look upon the 
broadly-blazoned and applauded slanders of his own land, 
which abound in this ; how he could run through the pages of 
Lester's book — tilled to the margin with the grossest, most un- 
founded and illiberal assaults upon the institutions and the 
social phases of Great Britain — and then write so calmly of 
this country, with so manifest a freedom from passion and pre- 
judice, as Dickens has done, is to us no slight marvel. That 
he has done it, is infinitely to his credit, and contirms us in the 
opinion we had long since formed of the soundness of his head 
and the goodness of his heart." 

During the Summer of 1S42, Mr. Greeley made a tour ot 
a months' duration, visiting Poultney, West Haven, London- 
derry, and the home of his parents in Pennsylvania; also, 
Washington, Mount Yernon, Niagara, and other places; and 
during his absence he sent some entertaining letters to the 
Tribune, and those from Washington, under the caption of 
"Glances at the United States Senate," were particularly in- 
teresting, and gave some graphic delineations of the leading 
men in the Senate at that time. On his return to New York, 
a brief notice appeared of his arrival, from which we extract 
the following : 



76 HORACE GREELEY 

" Two deductions only from the observations he (the senior 
editor of this paper,) has made, and the information he has 
gathered during his tour, will here be given ; they are these: 

1. The cause of Protection to Home Industry is much 
stronger throughout this and the adjoining States, than even 
the great party which mainly upholds it, and nothing will so 
much tend to ensure the election of Henry Clay next Presi- 
dent, as the veto of an efficient tariff bill by John Tyler. 

2. The strength of the Whig party is unbroken by recent 
disasters and treachery, and only needs the proper opportunity 
to manifest itself in all the energy and power of 1840. If a 
distinct and unequivocal issue can be made upon the great 
leading questions at issue between the rival parties— on Pro- 
tection to Home Industry aud Internal Improvement — the 
Whig ascendency will be triumphantly vindicated in the com- 
ing election." 

The ensuing presidential campaign of 1844, in which Henry 
Clay and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, were the candidates, 
was one of the most exciting in the political history of the 
country, and also of any in which Horace Greeley partici- 
pated. He was a devoted friend and admirer of Henry Clay, 
and no man ever worked harder in such a contest than he did, 
writing nearly three columns a day for the Tribune, and yet al- 
most incessantly traveling and making public speeches, and 
performing other work in the canvass; and doing all this 
merely at the dictates of conviction, enthusiastic patriotism, 
and love for Henry Clay. The great tight was unavailing, but 
Mr. Greeley has always believed the result might have been 
different had greater exertions been made by Mr. Clay's earn- 
est supporters. " Looking back through almost a quarter of a 
century, on the Clay canvass of 1844, I say deliberately, that 
it should not have been lost — that it need not have been lost. 
True, there was much good work done in it, but not half so 
much as there should have been done. I, for example, was in 
the very prime of life — thirty-three years old — and knew how 
to write for a newspaper, and I printed in that canvass, one of 



AND THE TKIBUNE. 77 

the most effective daily political journals ever yet issued. It 
was sold for two cents, and it had fifteen thousand daily sub- 
scribers when the canvass closed. It should have had a hnn- 
dred thousand from the first day onward, and my Clay Tribune 
— a campaign weekly, issued six months for fifty cents — should 
have had not less than a quarter of a million. And these two 
issues, wisely and carefully distributed, could not have failed 
to turn the long, doubtful scale in favor of Mr. Clay's election. 
Of course, I mean that other effective, devoted journals should 
also have been systematically disseminated, until every voter 
who could and would read a Whig journal, had been supplied 
with one, even though he had paid nothing for it. * * * 
Mr. Clay might have been elected if his prominent earnest 
supporters had made the requisite exertions and sacrifices, and 
I cannot but bitterly 7 feel that great and lasting public calami- 
ties would thereby have been averted." 

Among the other subjects discussed by Mr. Gkeeley in the 
Tribune during the year 1842, were Protection, capital pun- 
ishment and the arguments against it, the advocacy of a law 
punishing seductions, and other matters of importance, includ- 
ing all the prominent political topics. The first lecture of 
Horace Greeley in New York, took place January 3, 1843, 
before the New York Lyceum, at the Tabernacle, the subject 
being "Human Life." His position as leading editor of the 
Tribune, had become one of such influence, and so many peo- 
ple sought his advice and assistance, that he hardly found time 
for his daily editorial work, and was compelled to keep a no- 
tice constantly displayed in his office, informing visitors that 
the hours at which he could be seen, were between 8 and 9 
a. m., and 5 and 6 p. m., unless in cases of "imperative neces- 
sity " — so great a man had our Poultney apprentice become, 
and yet his career was only well begun. 

The somewhat celebrated libel suit of Mr. Fenimore Cooper 
against the Tribune, was tried at Saratoga, December 9, 1842. 
It originated from an article in the Tribune, in the form of 
correspondence from Fonda, giving a brief sketch of the trial 



78 HORACE GREELEY 

at that place, of the libel suits by Mr. Cooper against Mr. 
Weed, editor of the Albany evening Journal, and Col. Webb, 
editor of the Courier and Enquirer, New York, in the for- 
mer of which a verdict of $400 for the plaintiff was given, on 
which the Tribune made some jesting, satirical comments, 
which were made by the novelist the foundation for a suit 
against that paper, also. Mr. Greeley was personally present 
during the trial, and conducted the defense, making a very 
spirited and able address to the jury. He sent a complete and 
detailed account of the proceedings to the Tribune, together 
with comments thereon, which filled nearly the entire inside 
of the paper, that was read and laughed over throughout the 
country, and elicited favorable comments from over two hun- 
dred journals. The closing scene is thus depicted : " When 
the charge commenced, we would not have given Fenimore 
the first red cent for his verdict ; when it closed, we under- 
stood that we were booked to suffer some. If the jury had re- 
turned a verdict in our favor, the Judge must have been con- 
strained by his charge to set it aside as contrary to law. 

The jury retired about half-past two, and the rest of us went 
to dinner. The jury were hungry too, and did not stay out 
long. On comparing notes, there were seven of them for a 
verdict of $100 ; two for $200, and three for $500. They add- 
ed these sums up — total $2,600 — divided by 12, and the divi- 
dend was a little over $200 ; so they called it $200 damages, 
and six cents costs, which, of course, carries full costs against 
us. We went back from dinner, took the verdict in all meek- 
ness, took a sleigh, and struck a bee-line for New York. 
****** 

"Yes, Fennimore shall have his $200. To be sure, we 
don't exactly see how we came to owe him that sum, but he 
has won it, and it shall be paid. 'The court awards it, and 
the law doth give it.' We should like to meet him, and have 
a social chat over the whole business ; now it is over. There 
has been a great deal of fun in it, come to look back, and if he 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 79 

has as little ill-will toward us, as we bear to liim, there shall 
never be another hard thought between us." 

Notwithstanding these good-hnmored words, Mr. Cooper 
look fresh offense at some parts of Mr. Greeley's report, and 
instituted another suit, claiming $3,000 — damages. To noti- 
fication of this action, Mr. Greeley replies as follows: "But 
Fenimore, do hear reason a minute. This whole business is 
ridiculous. If you would simply sue those of the press-gang, 
who displease you, it would not be so bad ; but you sue and 
write too, which is not the fair thing. What use in belittleing 
the profession of literature, by appealing from its courts to 
those of law ? "We ought to litigate upward, not down. Now, 
Fenimore, you push a very good quill of your own, except 
when you attempt to be funny — then you break down. But 
in the way of cutting and slashing, you are no one; and you 
don't seem averse to it either. Then, why not settle this dif- 
ference at the point of the pen ? We hereby tender you a 
column a day of the Tribune, for ten days, promising to pub- 
lish verbatim whatever you may write, and put your name to 
■ — and to publish it in both our daily and weekly papers. You 
may give your view of the whole controversy between yourself 
and the press ; tell your story of the Ballston trial, and cut us 
up to your heart's content. We will further agree not to write 
over two columns in reply to the whole. Now why is not 
this better than invoking the aid of John Doe and Richard 
Doe (no offense to Judge W., and your 'learned kinsman,') 
in the premises ? Be wise now ! most chivalrous antagonist, 
and don't detract from the dignity of your profession !" 

This manner of treating the subject, seems to have had se- 
dative effect on Mr. Cooper's tendency to libel suits. He felt 
the laugh was against him ; and while he did not accept the 
generous offer of the editor of the Tribune, this second suit 
against that paper, was never brought to trial. 

The energy which animated the management of the Tri- 
bune, during the years of which we are now writing, was of 
the most active and determined character; and, indeed, this 



80 HORACE GREELEY 

was absolutely necessary, in order to keep it in the front rank 
of daily newspapers. At that time, the railroad and the tele- 
graph, which are now the rapid and unfailing channels of news, 
and only needing money to command them, were in imperfect 
operation ; and managers of newspapers had a wide margin for 
enterprise and originality, for procuring new intelligence in 
advance of competitors. Then were the days of special ex- 
presses, when hard riding forethought in providing relays of 
horses, and courage in keeping up wild gallops through the 
darkness over country roads, and energy in overcoming obsta- 
cles and accidents, were the main elements of success. The 
Tribune managed to keep ahead in all such newspaper enter- 
prises, and some of its men performed extraordinary feats in 
bringing the news to their journal, the accounts of which, as 
related in it, indicate the great difficulties with which first-class 
newspapers had to contend at that time, and which are now 
almost entirely obviated. 

The defeat of Henry Clay in 1844, and the election of Polk, 
to which we have alluded, was perhaps one of the most bitter 
disappointments which Mr. Greeley encountered in his career ; 
but it did not affect the Tribune injuriously, but succeeding 
it is noticeable a change in the political tone of the paper, par- 
ticularly towards slavery — the opening, as it were, of that im- 
placable crusade against the system, which resulted in its final 
downfall. To an enquiry made by a Southerner, as to what 
right the North had to interfere with slavery, Mr. Greeley 
wrote sternly as follows: "When we find the Union of a most 
unjust and. rapacious war, instigated wholly — as is officially 
proclaimed — by a determination to uphold and fortify slavery, 
then we do not see how it Can longer be rationally disputed, 
that the North has much, very much to do with slavery. If 
we may be drawn in to fight for it, it would be hard indeed 
that we should not be allowed to talk of it." A comprehen- 
sive, benevolent mind like Mr. Greeley's, was naturally in an- 
tagonism to a system like slavery, and his persistent opposi- 
tion thereto from these early days up to the bloody convulsion 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 81 

in which the last shackle of the slaves was shivered, did not 
originate from, and was not controlled by, merely political mo- 
tives, but was founded on a deep-seated and solemn conviction, 
that the system was in itself evil, and a crying shame against 
the nation. He believed with Lord Brougham, that it was a 
wild and guilty phantasy, that man could hold property in 
man. 

The evening Tribune was first issued September 1, 
1843, and the semi-weekly, May 17, 1845 ; and the Whig 
Almanac, full of statistics and general literature, was publish- 
ed by Greeley and McElrath regularly each year. The firm 
also published various other works of a general character, but 
these publications were finally abandoned, and the Tribune 
and the Almanac received their undivided attention. 

On the fifteenth of February, 1815, the Tribune office was 
burned, and the destruction of its contents was nearly com- 
plete. The fire originated in the publication office, about half 
past four o'clock in the morning, owing to some sparks drop- 
ped probably while the boy was lighting the fire in the stove, 
and the flames spread so rapidly, fanned by a strong gale 
that some of the employees barely escaped with their 
lives. Writing about the fire, Mr. Greeley said "In the 
basement our pressmen were at work on the daily Tribune 
of the morning, and had printed about three-fourths of the 
edition. The balance, of course, went with everything else, 
including a supply of paper, and the weekly Tribune printed 
on one side. A few books were hastily caught up and saved, 
but nothing else — not even the daily form on which the press- 
men were working. So complete a destruction of a daily 
newspaper office was never known. From the editorial rooms 
not a paper was saved, and besides all the editor's own manu- 
scripts, correspondence and collection of valuable books, some 
manuscripts belonging to friends, of great value to them, are 
gone." A heavy snow storm with intense cold, at the time of 
the fire, prevented the engines from working, and indeed, only 
in a few instances, from arriving at the scene, and so the des- 
truction was made the more complete. The mail books were 
6 



82 HORACE GREELEY 

saved in the safe, and immediate steps were taken to continne 
publication. An office was temporarily rented, the necessary 
materials, either purchased or borrowed, and the paper ap- 
peared next morning as usual, and three months later the 
office had been rebuilt on an enlarged and improved scale, 
and supplied with the best facilities known or obtainable. A 
great fire cannot destroy a great newspaper, where the proper 
energy controls the publication, for it has created a necessity 
for its own existence, and no destruction of material or its 
place of issue can stop the public demand for it, or obliterate 
its character and patronage. 

The connection of Margaret Fuller with the New York 
Tribune is an event of interest in the life of Mr. Greeley. 
Both were gifted and strongly marked characters, and respect- 
ing the former, whose life gathers additional interest from its 
brilliant promise and tragic close, it is fortunate that she was 
even temporarily associated with Mr. Greeley ; for while it 
was the source of some of the purest happiness she enjoyed on 
earth, it left behind her a kind and appreciative friend, and 
one who has presented to the world in literary form, the fin- 
est and best statement of her character and genius. A resume 
of the life of Horace Greeley would be incomplete without 
something more than a passing notice of this distinguished 
woman and the incidents of her connection with the Tri- 
bune, and fortunately the affectionate memory of Mr. Gree- 
ley has furnished ample material on the subject, and his in- 
teresting account of his friendship with her and her associa- 
tion with the Tribune, will be found in another chapter. 
Previous to her connection with the Tribune, Margaret Ful- 
ler had acted for some time as editor of the Dial, published in 
Boston — a quarterly, and assuming to be as she expressed it. 
"A perfectly free organ offered for the expression of individual 
thought and character." It was probably while conducting 
this periodical, that her remarkable abilities and acquirements 
became known, and she formed the acquaintance of many per- 
sons distinguished in literature. Ralph Waldo Emerson and 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 83 

George Ripley were her immediate associates in the editing of 
the Dial, and it was in this magazine that she published her 
most substantial work, " The Great Lawsuit," subsequently 
remodeled and extended, and published in a separate volume, 
entitled, "Woman in the Nineteenth Century." Mrs. Greeley, 
who spent much time in Boston, there formed her acquain- 
tance, and attended several of the " Conversations for women 
only," which had been inaugurated by Margaret Fuller, and 
in which every one who attended was required to contribute 
something either verbally or in writing, for the general edifi- 
cation, the general design being the discussion of questions con- 
nected with the social and political elevation of woman. Mrs. 
Greeley was much impressed with Margaret Fuller and her 
novel and original views, and in order to enjoy her society 
more constantly and fully, she effected an arrangement by 
which Margaret became a regular writer for the Tribune, and 
an inmate of the Greeley mansion, which was then situated on 
the East River at Turtle Bay, nearly opposite the southern 
point of Blackwell's Island, with about eight acres of ground 
attached. It was a spacious old wooden house, built by Isaac 
Laurence, formerly President of the United States Branch 
Bank, and had been chosen by Mr. Greeley shortly after the 
close of the great campaign of 1844, when his health had been 
so broken by over work that he needed rural quiet and fresh- 
ness to restore him. The place was comfortable, with fine 
trees and beautiful views, and Margaret Fuller often ex- 
pressed the pleasure she took in it, and acquired for it the 
fondness of a happy home. Her first article reviewing Emer- 
son's essays appeared in the Tribune of the seventh of De- 
cember, 1844, and she continued to write for it until her de- 
parture for Europe, August first, 1846, although subsequently 
she sent some entertaining letters from abroad to the paper. 

The Tribune was now the leading paper of the United 
States, and owing to its independent and fearless tone, had of 
course, many enemies; and notwithstanding his spotless pri- 
vate life, Mr. Gkekley was often made the object of enven- 



84 HORACE GREELEY. 

omed attacks, but, nevertheless, the career of the paper was 
one of unbroken prosperity. The history of the paper 
indeed affords an illustration of the manner in which a news- 
paper can accomplish success, and acquire influence, without 
being the exponent of any parti cularcl ass of ideas, or truckling 
to any particular political party. It has, from the outset, been 
a brave, outspoken and animated paper, dealing always with 
live questions and progressive ideas, and permeated and con- 
trolled by the comprehensive and vigorous mind of Horace 
Greeley. During the years from 1845 to 1850, while its 
course was most prosperous, it had to encounter every species 
of opposition, and its determined hostility to the Mexican war, 
nearly brought about the mobbing of the office, after the close 
of a war meeting in the Park. Its hearty advocacy of Irish 
Repeal, created indignation among the English residents, its lib- 
erality of treatment of questions of social reform and religious 
opinion, caused the displeasure of strict conservatives and or- 
thodox believers, while its unremitting opposition to the slave 
power of the Southern States, made nearly every Southerner 
its enemy, and almost destroyed its circulation in that section 
of the country. Mr. Greeley's personality entered largely 
into the editorial expression of the paper, and at this time he 
was not disposed to mince words in presenting his views. 
Where the paper was roughly attacked, it replied in corres- 
ponding style ; nor were there many which could cope with it 
in forcible vituperation. 

Early in 1848, the exciting events connected with the Rev- 
olutions in Ireland and France, were watched with the deep- 
est interest from this side of the Atlantic. Mr. Greeley wrote 
with great earnestness and enthusiasm on the popular side, 
and the proprietors of the Tribune made every exertion to 
furnish its readers with news at the earliest possible moment, 
and Mr. Charles A. Dana, one of the editors, was dispatched to 
Europe, as a special correspondent. Mr. Greeley sympathized 
deeply with the cause of Irish liberty, and accepted a position 
in the " Directory of the Friends of Ireland," and also contribu 



AND THE TRIBUNE. 85 

ted largely to the same. The " Slievegammon letters," which 
created such an extraordinary sensation, were published in the 
Tribune, in August of this year, and it will be appropriate 
to furnish some explanation of them here. Popular expec- 
tation, as to news from Ireland, was at its height, when a 
steamer arrived ; and among the dispatches for the Tribune, 
there were three letters, giving news which was not contained 
in the newspapers. There appears to have been some suspi- 
cion at the Tribune office, as to the authenticity of the letters, 
but as they contained news of the greatest importance, if true, 
they were published with displayed heads, "without vouching 
for the accuracy of the statements." In one of the letters, an 
account was given of a great victory by the Irish people over 
the English army, with various exciting details of the popular 
triumph, and of course, the friends of Ireland exulted greatly 
over the intelligence, and when it was subsequently proved 
untrue, the Tribune was accused of having circulated a cruel 
hoax, although entirely innocent of any thing of the kind. 
It appeared upon an investigation, that the letters had been 
written in good faith, but based upon the wild rumors preval- 
ent in Dublin, at the period. Horace Greeley never saw the 
letters until he read them in the Tribune, as he was enjoy- 
ing a tour along Lake Superior, at the time of their publica- 
tion. 

About this time, a dispute occurred between the Tribune 
and the New York Herald, as to their comparative circula- 
tion, and a committee was appointed, at the suggestion of the 
Tribune proprietors, to examine the business of both journals. 
The report of the committee showed that the average daily 
circulation of the Tribune, was 11,455; weekly, 15,780; semi- 
weekly, 960 ; total, 28,195. The total circulation of the Her- 
ald, as shown by the same report, was 28,946 ; its daily edi- 
tion exceeding the Tribune's, but the others being less. In 
accordance with the agreement, the Tribune, as the losing 
party, paid $100 to each of the two orphan asylums, but pro- 
tested against the decision, because the Presidential Herald 
and the Sunday edition had been included m the comparison. 



86 HORACE GREELEY AND THE TRIBUNE. 

The presidential campaign of 1848, which opened immedi- 
ately after the close of the Mexican war, excited much pub- 
lic interest ; but the Tribune did not participate in it with 
the same active enthusiasm of former years. The fact of the 
matter is, that Mr. Greeley opposed the nomination of Gen- 
eral Zaehary Taylor from the first, and even after the meet- 
ing of the nominating Convention at Philadelphia, nor was 
it until late in the Summer, that his paper came to the sup- 
port of the ticket. He was then, as in 1844, the admirer and 
champion of Henry Clay, and was again desirous that he 
should be put in nomination for President ; and worked ener- 
getically in his interest. Again, however, he was destined to 
disappointment, and when the ballot was announced, giving 
the nomination to Taylor, he left the hall much disappointed, 
and returned to New York, but would not consent at first, 
to printing the ticket at the head of the editorial columns, 
as had been the custom. He did not oppose the nominee af- 
ter the nomination, but he did little or nothing to promote 
liis success. In the latter part of September, he attended a 
"Whig meeting at Vauxhall Garden, and the audience having 
called for him repeatedly, he made a brief and earnest ad- 
dress, in which he defined clearly his views and position. 
Among other things, he said: ""While I frankly avow, I 
would do little, merely to make Gen. Taylor President, I 
cannot forget that others stand or fall with him, and that 
among them are Fillmore and Fish, and Patterson, with whom 
I have battled for the Whig cause ever since I was entitled to 
vote, and to whom I cannot now be unfaithful. I cannot for- 
get, that if Gen. Taylor be elected, we shall, in all probability, 
have a Whig Congress ; if Gen. Cass is elected, a Locofoco 
Congress. Who can ask me to throw away all these, because 
of my objections to Gen. Taylor? 




CHAPTER m. 

THREE MONTHS EST CONGRESS AND IN EUROPE, &C. 



k N event of some interest in the life of Horace Greeley 
xh%Oi occurred this year, viz: his election to Congress, and al- 
though he was not very ambitious for the honor conferred, having 
accepted the nomination merely to gratify political friends, yet it 
was the means of enabling him to perform some important public 
services, while his career during the term illustrates most forcibly 
his fearless and independent character. He was elected to rep- 
resent the upper district of New York for the period of about 
three months, or the unexpired part of the term of Davis S. 
Jackson, (Democrat,) whose election had been contested by Col. 
James Monroe, (Whig,) resulting in Jackson's being unseated, 
and an election to fill the vacancy. Monroe failed to secure the 
nomination for the ensuing Congress, and then declined to accept 
the place for the ninety days, and it was offered to Mr. Greeley. 
He determined to decline, but finally yielded to his friends, and was 
elected over his opponent by a majority of 3,177, the whole num- 
ber of votes being -5, 985, considerably exceeding the majority for 
Gen. Taylor, in the same wards. 

It is a characteristic of Mr. Greeley's life, that if almost any 
episode in it is examined separately, it will afford an illustration. 
of his intellectual capacity, and peculiar character. This is 
particularly the case in his brief Congressional career ; for 
although only member of Congress for about three months, he 
crowded more honest work into the period, than many Congress- 
men accomplish in a full term. His services were of importance 
to the nation, not only in the value of the measures he originated, 
but in the evident integrity of his purposes at a time when many 



88 LITE AND CAREER OP 

abuses existed in the national Legislature, of a serious character. 
He was constantly busy during the whole time ; always at his place 
in the House, and notwithstanding these engagements, managed 
to maintain a daily correspondence with the Tribune, his letters 
being full of news and written in a most effective and pungent 
style. We cannot here enter into the details of his Congressional 
career, but a brief review of its leading features must not be 
omitted. A few days after taking his seat he introduced a valu- 
able Land Reform bill, calculated to suppress speculation in public 
lands, and encouraging settlement by securing pre-emption claims, 
and regulating the same. His first letters to his paper reflected 
severely on the absence of members at the early sessions, and their 
drawing pay for work which they did not attend to, and also on 
the loose manner of conducting important public business. Three 
or four days after the introduction of the land bill, he offered a 
resolution requesting the Secretary of the Navy to inquire into and 
report upon the expediency and feasibility of temporarily employ- 
ing the whole or a portion of the national vessels then on the Pa- 
cific station, in the transportation at moderate rates, of American 
citizens and their effects, from Panama and the Mexican ports on 
the Pacific, to San Francisco, in California. This resolution was 
intended to facilitate the transportation of people to the gold- 
fields, which were then drawing westward an immense multitude ; 
but notwithstanding an energetic effort by its originator, it was 
laid over, and not again reached during the session. The next 
day Mr. Greeley delivered a compact and forcible speech on the 
tariff, and directed principally against a disparaging allusion to 
manufacturers as a class, contained in the President's message. 
The celebrated exposure of the abuses, we might say frauds, per- 
petrated under the head of " Congressional Mileage," was pub- 
lished in the Tribune of December 22, 1848, and excited pop. 
ular attention throughout the country, while it created an extra- 
ordinary sensation in Washington. In some of his previous let- 
ters to the Tribune, Mr. Greeley had referred with unsparing 
severity of language to the careless manner in which public busi- 
ness was attended to, or rather not attended to at all, by members 



HORACE GREELEY. 89 

who displayed extraordinary diligence in claiming all possible re- 
muneration for services claimed to have been rendered the govern- 
ment ; and his expose of the mileage system, followed, as a 
result of his first inquiries into and attempt to reform then exist- 
ing abuses. The following compact account of the matter, is by 
Mr. Greeley, and we give it in full : 

Early in December I called on the Sergeant- at- Arms for some 
money on account, he being paymaster of the House. The sched- 
ule used by that officer was placed before me, showing the amount 
of mileage respectively accorded to each member of the House. 
Many of these amounts struck me as excessive, and I tried to rec- 
ollect if any publication of all the allowances in a like case had 
ever been made through the journals, but could not remember any 
such publicity. On inquiry, I was informed that the amounts 
were regularly published in a certain document entitled " The Pub- 
lic Accounts," of which no considerable number were printed, and 
which was obviously not intended for popular distribution, (it is 
even omitted in this document for the year 1848, printed since I 
published my expose, so that I can now find it in no public docu- 
ment whatever.) I could not remember that I had ever seen a 
copy, though one had been obtained and used by my assistant in 
making up last year's almanac. It seemed to me therefore, desir- 
able that the facts should be brought to the knowledge of the pub- 
lic, and resolved that it should be done. * * * * I ac- 
cordingly employed an ex-clerk in one of the departments, and in- 
structed him to make out a tabular expose, as follows : 

1. Name of each member of the House. 

2. Actual distance from his residence to Washington by the 
shortest post route. 

3. Distance for which he is allowed and paid mileage*. 

4. Amount of mileage received by him. 

5. Excess of mileage so received over what would have been if the 
distance had been computed by the shortest or most direct mail 
route. 

The expose was prepared in accordance with this programme, 
and duly appeared in the Tribune. In the introductory re- 
marks, Mr. Greeley tempered the severe reflection which the 
figures cast upon a majority of the members, by showing that 
however exorbitant might be the charges, it could hardly be 



90 LITE AND CAREER OF 

called illegal, for the " Law expressly says that each man shall 
receive $8.00 for every twenty miles traveled, in coming to 
and returning from Congress by the usually traveled route," 
and of course, if the route usually traveled from California to 
Washington is around Cape Horn — or the members from that 
embryo State shall think it is — they will each be entitled to 
charge some $12,000 mileage per session, accordingly. We as- 
sume that each has charged precisely what the law allows him, 
and thereupon we press home the question — ought not that 
law to be amended ? 

The tabular statement showed that nearly every member of 
the House and Senate had drawn from the Treasury more mile- 
age than should properly have been paid him, while the total 
number of "circuitous miles" shown, M r as about 183,000, 
amounting, at forty cents per mile, to over $73,000. As a 
consequence, every member of Congress felt himself personally 
interested in the publication, and the majority were, as might 
be expected, very indignant ; and as a piece of useful, yet sen- 
sational intelligence, the publication was a most brilliant suc- 
cess. It was caught up by the press, and circulated every- 
where, and for some time was a prominent subject of com- 
ment. As a matter of course, it came up in the House, and its 
author was made the object of the bitterest abuse, which, how- 
ever, lie endured with the utmost coolness, always ready to 
rebut it by plain statements and convincing facts. Mr. Wil- 
liam Sawyer of Ohio, brought the matter before the House in 
an ill-natured and harsh speech in support of a resolution au- 
thorizing a committee to inquire into the publication, and the 
charges against members therein contained. A short debate 
followed, in which Mr. Greeley participated by a forcible 
speech, explaining the motives for the publication, and the 
sources of the information. The resolution was adopted, but 
the committee appear never to have arrived at any very im- 
portant conclusions, but some of the members were so indig- 
nant at Mr. Greeley, that even the question of his expulsion 
was privately discussed. This movement is reported to have 



HORACE GREELEY. 91 

been squelched by a reply given by Hon. John "Wentworth to 
some members who approached him on the subject — " Why, 
yon blessed fools," he said, " Do yon want to make him Pres- 
ident ?" 

It the mileage expose secured no immediate legislation on the 
subject, it yet did a great deal of good, and by clearly presenting 
the facts, prepared the way for future reforms. During the 
same sessiun, Mr. Greeley further illustrated his desire to econ- 
omize the public funds, bj T an energetic effort to obliterate the 
practice of dispensing gratuities to the host of Congressional 
employees already overpaid for the services performed. 

There were various important measures reached during this 
session of Congress, in all of which Mr. Greeley exhibited a 
keen and active interest. He reported from committee, a bill 
providing for the reduction of the price of hinds bordering on 
Lake Superior. He opposed the item for recruiting service, 
making a forcible speech against certain features in the recruit- 
ing system. The slavery question was a fruitful subject of 
discussion at this time in Congress ; but we believe, altho' Mr. 
Greeley had the most sincere and active convictions on the 
subject, he only made one brief speech thereon during the ses- 
sion. He took a deep interest in the organization, etc., of the 
vast Territories acquired by the Mexican war, and voted to 
prohibit the introduction of slavery therein. 

Congress adjourned on the 4th of March, the last hours be- 
ing most graphically described by Mr. Greeley, in the Tri- 
bune, and he returned to New York on the 9th inst., having 
closed a brief but most remarkable Congressional career; a 
career happily most illustrative of the man, full of activity and 
earnest endeavor, of noble and honest purpose, and showing 
that general capacity and originality, which form the distin- 
guishing characteristics of his gifted intellect. His boldness 
and independence, and determination to oppose any misuse of 
public funds, were appreciated by the people, and were ap- 
plauded in different quarters. On his return to New York, he 
published a brief address to his constituents, reviewing his 



92 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

course in a simple manner, and thanking them for the trust re- 
posed him. 

If we were writing a detailed history of the Tribune, there 
is much in the year 1849 worthy of particular attention ; hut 
as our aim is to sketch only the more important events in the 
life of Horace Greeley, we must pass over it with but brief 
allusion. The course of the Tribune was that of vigorous 
prosperity — it was among (if not at the head) of the leading 
journals of the country ; in its columns were discussed all the 
great questions of the day — it had become, in fact, a represent- 
ative newspaper of the American nation, breathing the spirit, 
the energy and genius of the people. Its staff of writers was the 
ablest in the country, including such men as Mr. Dana, Bay- 
ard Taylor, Mr. George Ripley, Win. Henry Fry and others, 
while the ever active and capacious brain of Mr. Greeley di- 
rected and animated the whole establishment. In May of this 
year, Mr. Greeley visited Cincinnati and other points in the 
West, and was most cordially welcomed, being treated with a 
degree of personal consideration which indicated of what na- 
tional reputation the editor of the Tribune had become, and 
this was also the case during two other visits to the West made 
during this year. 

The excitement connected with the celebrated " Rochester 
Knockings," sprang up about the close of this year, and as Mr. 
Greeley subsequently took a good deal of interest in the ex- 
amination of the phenomena, some mention of the matter may 
be appropriate. His attention was first directed to the subject 
by a letter which was published in the Tribune, signed by 
several prominent citizens in Rochester, giving a circumstan- 
tial account of the wonders connected with the Fox girls. 
When the newly discovered mediums came to New York, he 
called upon them at their hotel, and was present at a " sitting," 
when the " raps " were abundantly heard. He states, howev- 
er, that he was not particularly interested, and probably would 
not have repeated the visit only for the influence of his wife. 
Their little boy, "Pickie," as they loved to call him, had re- 



HORACE GREELEY. 93 

cently died, and Mrs. Greeley consequently had her thoughts 
particularly directed towards the world beyond the grave, and 
kindred subjects, and felt a keen interest in the reports about 
the Foxes. They visited the girls at the hotel several times, 
and finally invited them to the Greeley mansion, where they 
spent some little time. The mediums were then in universal 
demand, and consequently the Greeley s were compelled to 
permit a good many visitors. Jenny Lind having expressed a 
curiosity to see the girls, was invited to come to the house by 
Mr. Greeley, and accepted; and not only came herself, but 
brought with her a crowd of strangers. When the " rappings " 
were in progress, she called out to Mr. Greeley rather imper- 
tinently, " Take your hands from under the table !" evidently 
suspecting that he was in some manner assisting the develop- 
ment of some trick. Mr. Greeley good-humoredly clasped his 
hands above his head for the remainder of the "seance," but 
naturally felt a less active desire to assist other people to an 
examination of the phenomena. He however continued to 
investigate the subject with his customary practical energy, 
and in his interesting "Recollections of a Busy Life," he states 
his conclusions in arithmetical and regular order, and from 
which we select the following : 

I. Those who discharge promptly and faithfully all their duties 
to those who " still live " in the flesh, can have little time for pok- 
ing and peering into the life beyond the grave. Better to attend 
to each world in its proper order. 

II. Those who claim through the " mediums," to be Shakespeare, 
Milton, Byron, etc., and try to prove it by writing poetry, invari- 
ably come to grief. I cannot recall a single line of " spiritual " po- 
etry that is not weak, if not execrable, save that of Rev. Thomas 
L. Harris, who is a poet still in the flesh. * * * * 

HI. As a general rule, the so-called spiritual communications 
are vague, unreal, shadowy, trivial. They are not what we should 
expect our departed friends to say to us. I never could feel that 
the lost relative or friend who professed to be addressing me, was 
actually present. * * * * * 

IY. Not only is it true (as we should in any case presume,) that 
nearly all attempts of the so-called "mediums " to guide specula- 



94 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

tors as to events yet future, have proved melancholy failures ; hut 
it is demonstrated that the so-called " spirits " are often ignorant 
of events which have already transpired. * * * All 

that we have learned of them has added little or nothing to our 
knowledge, unless it be in enabling us to answer with more confi- 
dence that old, momentous question — " If a man die, shall he live 



In other conclusions, formally stated, Mr. Greeley seems 
to question to the effect of spiritualism on morals, and society 
generally, and that it did not render men "less bigoted, less 
intolerant than the devotees at other shrines," he thinks is 
clearly established. It appears evident that he was much im- 
pressed with the physical phenomena, but that his examination 
into the system based thereon, was cursory and hasty in char- 
acter. As a thoughtful, but busy man of the world, his atten- 
tion was arrested for the time, but was distracted before the 
real significance of the mystery was explored, and the general 
conclusion he arrived at, is expressed in the lines — 

" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."— 

The first woman's convention — which took place this year 
— was fully reported in the Tribune, and excited a great deal 
of public attention. Now that female conventions have be- 
come a matter of every day, and the question of Woman's 
Eights has been amplified to embrace much more than the 
original proposition, Mr. Greeley appears to have taken rather 
decided issue with the lady reformers, but at the inception of 
the movement he gave them a favorable •' send-off." "It is 
easy," he said, " to be smart, to be droll, to be facetious in op- 
position to the demands of these female reformers, and in de- 
crving assumptions so novel and opposed to established habits 
and usages, a little wit will go a great way. But when a sin- 
cere Republican is asked to say in sober earnest, what ade- 
quate reason he can give for refusing the demand of women 
to an equal participation with men in political rights, he must 
answer, ' None at all.' " The very deep interest which Mr. 



HORACE GREELEY. 95 

Greeley felt in what is called " Fourierism," has been referred 
to in previous pages, and although his plans for "association " 
in the working of firms and other departments of human in- 
dustiy did not meet general favor, he never abandoned his 
convictions on the subject. Indeed the disposition of the 
practical ownership of the Tribune, made in I8i9, indicates 
that both Mr. Greeley and his partner, Mr. McElrath, were 
desirous of introducing the feature of associated labor into the 
great enterprise — the Tribune. By mutual consent the 
whole establishment was upon an impartial estimate by out- 
side parties, valued at $100,000, a sum that must have been 
very considerably below its real worth. Upon this valuation 
shares were issued to the number of one hundred at $(,000 each, 
and the principal employees in each department were permit- 
ted to purchase some of them. About twenty shares were at 
first disposed of, but other sales were made subsequent] v, 
until not more than two-thirds remained in the hands of two 
original proprietors, although their practical control was not 
affected. This experiment in the Tribune office was found 
to work advantageously, and the prosperity of the paper was 
as vigorous and encouraging subsequently as under its old 
form of ownership. 

We pass over some minor events to take up that important 
and interesting episode in the life of Mr. Greeley, viz : his 
first visit to Europe. We have seen in the preceding pages 
the extraordinary activity and energy by which he not only 
acquired discipline and education for his capacious mind, 
but raised himself from the standing of a farm boy to the 
position of the first journalist in America, and truly re- 
presentative of the best type of American intellect and man- 
hood. In some measure he now tasted the reward of his pa- 
tient industry and ceaseless exertion, the paper he had founded 
was a substantial and splendid success ; he was honored and 
respected by his countrymen, and his private fortune was on a 
secure foundation. At such a time a visit across the Atlantic 
came in as a proper, useful and well-earned holiday, and it is 



96 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

with renewed interest the friendly eye follows him as he enjoys 
it. The opening- of the World's Fair at London in 1851, of- 
fered an inducement to the world to visit the modern Babylon, 
and although this event was not the primary cause of his trip, 
yet it added materially to its interest and enjoyment, and in 
connection with some other matters, enabled him to see more 
of English society and the various features of the country than 
he could probably have done under other circumstances. He 
had long before formed the intention of visiting Europe, but 
his various pursuits interfered, and consequently, now that lie 
was actually able to make the trip under the most favorable 
auspices, it had all the fresh interest of a pleasure deferred. 
But if any suppose that the occasion was intended to be a 
mere idle holiday, it is a great mistake. To him, evidentl} r , 
it was to be one of active observation and an opportunity for 
acquiring information for future use; and, indeed, as will be 
seen, his stay in Europe was full of earnest occupation, and he 
performed an important service towards spreading correct 
ideas concerning the United States among the higher class of 
English people. 

This trip across the wild Atlantic was Horace Greeley's 
first experience in sea traveling, and it proved to be of a most 
trying character. He left ."New York in the steamship Baltic, 
on the 11th April, 1851, there being also among the cabin 
passengers on board, quite a number of American gentlemen 
en route to England for the purpose of visiting the Exhibition. 
It was a gray, chilly day, with a stiff north-east wind blowing, 
and every promise of dirty weather ahead. So it proved — for 
the first night out a heavy gale prevailed, and cloudy, stormy 
weather continued throughout the twelve days of the passage, 
winding up with another heavy gale oif the Irish coast. Mr. 
Greeley suffered severely from sea-sickness, and was in his 
berth nearly all the time. He says of it, " I was sick unto 
death's door for most of the time, eating by an effort when I 
ate at all, and as thoroughly miserable as I knew how to be." 
It was with delight that he felt himself once more on terra 



HORACE GREELEY. 97 

Jirma, and enjoying the substantial and wholesome fare which 
is so worthy a characteristic of England, and which nearly all 
travelers join in commending. He does not appear to have 
been very favorably impressed with Liverpool, although 
appreciating its splendid commercial advantages, but the 
murky English weather disgusted him heartily. He only re- 
mained in Liverpool a day or so when he started for London, 
and during the railroad ride of two hundred miles or so, had 
his first glimpse at English farming and farm lands, and re- 
specting which he had many practical and interesting observa- 
tions to make in subsequent letters. On reaching London, he 
went direct to the house of Mr. John Chapman, the publisher, 
where he stopped during his visit to the city. 

The arrival of Mr. Greeley in London was almost simultane- 
ous with the opening of the great Exhibition, and he had an op- 
portunity of witnessing all the splendid pageants accompanying 
that event. In these, however, he does not appear to have been 
deeply interested, alluding to them in his letters in a style of serio- 
comic disparagement, and particularly to the official titles of the 
court personages participating in the royal procession, which 
sounded rather odd in his Republican ears. But he was not des- 
tined to be merely an observer of the scenes of the exhibition. 
He was appointed by the American Commissioner, at the instance 
of a number of his countrymen, a member of the jury on hard- 
ware, and of which he became chairman. This department em- 
braced a vast variety of entries, there being, in the words of Mr. 
Greeley, " about three thousand different lots, not merely three 
thousand articles ;" and these included not only all that is ordi- 
narily included under the word hardware, but an immense number 
of ingenious devices for domestic and manufacturing use. Among 
his colleagues on this important jury, were Mr. William Bird, a 
leading British iron-master, and M. Spitaels, of Belgium, and 
director of the Vielle Montaigne Zinc Mines, and a man of great 
ability and attainments. This official position necessarily de^ 
volved some rather arduous work upon Mr. Greeley, but at the 
same time it gave him peculiar advantages for examination and 



98 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

observation, and brought him in contact with all classes of Eng- 
lish society, and enabled him to form many pleasant and valuable 
acquaintances. Among other interesting incidents connected with 
his service at the exhibition, was his participation in the great 
banquet given at Richmond by the London Commissioners to the 
Commissioners from foreign countries. It was the desire of 
Lord Ashburton, who presided, that the toast in honor of Mr. Jo- 
seph Paxton, the architect of the Crystal Palace, should be pro- 
posed by an American, and Mr. Riddle, Commissioner from the 
United States, suggested Mr. Greeley, who performed the task 
admirably in the following brief, forcible speech, conceived in 
the happiest spirit : 

In my own land, my lords and gentlemen, where nature is still 
so rugged and unconquered, where population is yet so scanty, 
and the demands for human exertion are so various and urgent, 
it is but natural that we should render marked honor to labor, and 
especially to those who by invention or discovery contribute to 
shorten the processes, and increase the efficiency of industry. It 
is but natural, therefore, that this grand conception of a compari- 
son of the state of industry in all nations, by means of a World's 
Exhibition, should there have been l-eceived and canvassed with a 
lively and general interest, an interest which is not measured by 
the extent of our contributions. 

Ours is still one of the youngest of nations, with few large accu- 
mulations of the fruits of manufacturing activity or artistic skill, 
and these so generally needed for use, that Ave were not likely to 
send them three thousand miles away merely for show. 

It is none the less certain, that the progress of this great exhibi- 
tion, from its original conception to that perfect realization which 
Ave here commemorate, has been watched and discussed not more 
earnestly throughout the saloons of Europe, than by the smith's 
forge and the mechanic's bench in America. 

Especially the hopes and fears alternately predominant on this 
side, with respect to the edifice required for the exhibition — the 
doubts as to the practicability of erecting one sufficiently capacious 
and commodious to contain and display the contributions of the 
whole world — the apprehension that it could not be rendered im- 
pervious to water — the confident assertions that it could not be 
completed in season for opening the Exhibition on the first of May, 
as promised — all found an echo on our shores ; and now the tidiugs 



HORACE GREELEY. 99 

that all these doubts have heen dispelled, these difficulties removed, 
will have been hailed there with unmingled satisfaction. 

I trust, gentlemen, that among the ultimate fruits of this Exhi- 
bition, we are to reckon a wider and deeper appreciation of the 
worth of labor, and especially of those " Captains of Industry " by 
whose conceptions and achievements our race is so rapidly home 
onward in its progress to a loftier and more benignant destiny. 
"We shall not he likely to appreciate more fully the merits of the 
wise Statesmen, by whose measures a people's thrift and happiness 
are promoted — of the hrave soldier, who joyfully pours out his 
blood in defense of the rights or in vindication of the honor of his 
country, of the sacred teacher, by whose precepts and example, 
our steps are guided in the pathway to heaven — if we render fit 
honor also to those "Captains of Industry," whose tearless victories 
redden no river, and whose conquering march is unmarked by the 
tears of the widow, and the cries of the orphan. 1 give you, there- 
fore, 

THE 

HEALTH OF JOSEPH PAXTON, ESQ., 

DESIGNER OF THE 

CRYSTAL PALACE. 

HONOR TO HIM, 

WHOSE GENIUS DOES HONOR TO INDUSTRY AND TO MAN 1 

His duties on the jury gave him a month or more of in- 
cessant employment, examining the merits of articles and mater- 
ials upon which the jury were called to pass ; but he went through 
the work cheerfully and earnestly, and to the best of his abil- 
ity. 

Nearly all the well known and really interesting points in 
in London were, of course, visited, but Mr. Greeley very fre- 
quently differed materially from the general opinion of sight- 
seers. Westminster Abbey did not particularly impress him, 
nor some other places of rich historic interest, the reason be- 
ing, probably, that the natural bent of his mind is to the prac- 
tical and useful, rather than towards the romantic spirit that 
reveres the hoary and antique. The great Epsom races failed 
to excite sufficient curiosity to draw him to the course, but he 



100 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

found opportunity to inspect the Ragged Schools, the model 
lodging houses, and the people's bathing establishments, and 
similar institutions. The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
Society celebrated their anniversary during his stay in Lon- 
don, and in connection with the question, what Britons could 
do to overthrow slavery, he made a brief speech. Several ora- 
tors preceded him, who chiefly confined themselves to lauding 
England as the land of freedom ; Mr. Greeley followed in an 
address of about fifteen or twenty minutes' duration and in a 
style that rather startled than charmed his audience. He told 
the English Abolitionists that they could hasten the overthrow 
of slavery by raising the reward and estimation of labor at 
home, by helping to diffuse the sentiment of respect between 
man and man* and by eradicating those social evils in Eng- 
land, that degradation of the working classes by which the ex- 
istence of slavery was sought to be justified, and lastly, that 
the increased immigration to the slave States of free laborers 
from England and elsewhere, would silently, but most effectu- 
ally obliterate, in course of time, the system of enforced labor! 
Such a speech could hardly be expected to excite enthusiasm 
in an English audience, but it was listened to attentively and 
thoughtfully. 

A pleasanter occasion, perhaps, was the visit to the Devon- 
shire House, where he witnessed the performance of a play by 
distinguished authors, for the benefit of the Library Guild — 
Charles Dickens, Douglas Jerrold, and others, participating. 
He was one of a select company that celebrated the eightieth 
birth-day of Robert Owen, by a dinner at the Colbourne Hotel, 
and to which occasion he referred in a letter as a most 
agreeable and memorable one. 

An important episode in Mr. Greeley's London visit was 
his interviews with the Parliamentary committee, having un- 
der consideration the repeal of the duty on newspaper adver- 
tisements, and the stamp duty on newspapers and periodicals. 
This committee included the following gentlemen, members of 
the House of Commons : Right Hon. T. Milnor Gibson, Sir 



HORACE GREELEY. 101 

J. Walmsey, and Messrs. Tnfnel, Ewart, Cobden, Rich, Adair 
and Hamilton ; and during the course of tlieir investigations, 
as it was absolutely necessary to obtain all possible informa- 
tion respecting the real character and operation of the news- 
paper business in England and in America, they invited Mr. 
Greeley, as an experienced American journalist, to be present 
at their sittings, and give them such information as he could 
furnish. He acceded willingly, and attended two sessions of 
the Committee, explaining his views with perfect freedom and 
in a manner so practical and forcible, that his evidence, as it 
may be called, made a deep impression, and unquestionably 
had an important influence in the subsequent action by Par- 
liament. The report of Mr. Greeley's statements is so in- 
teresting and characteristic, that we present it in full. 

In reply to a question by the Right Hon. T. Milnor Gib- 
son, respecting the advertisement duty, Mr. Greeley said : 

Your duty is the same on the advertisements in a journal with 
fifty thousand circulation, as in a journal with one thousand, 
although the value of the article is twenty times as much in the one 
case as in the other. The duty operates precisely as though you 
wei*e to lay a tax of one shilling a day on every day's labor that a 
man were to do ; to a man whose labor is worth two shillings a 
day, it would be destructive ; while by a man who earns twenty 
shillings a day, it would be very lightly felt. 

An advertisement is worth but a certain amount, and the public 
soon get to know what it is worth ; you put a duty on advertise- 
ments and you destroy the value of those coming to new establish- 
ments. People who advertise in your well established journals, 
could afford to pay a price to include the duty; but in a new pa- 
per, the advertisements would not be worth the amount of the 
duty alone; and consequently, the new concern would have no 
chance. Now, the advertisements are one main source of the in- 
come of daily papers, and thousands of business men take them 
mainly for those advertisements. For instance, at the time when 
our auctioneers were appointed by law, (they were, of course, par- 
ty politicians,) one journal, which was high in the confidence of 
the party in power, obtained, not a law, but an understanding, 
that all the auctioneers appointed, should advertise in that journal. 
Now, though the journal referred to has ceased to be of that party, 
and the auctioneers are no longer appointed by the State, yet that 



102 LIFE AND CAREER OP 

journal has aimost the monopoly of the auctioneers' business to 
this day. Auctioneers must advertise in it, because they know 
that purchasers are looking there ; and purchasers must take the 
paper, because they know that it contains just the advertisements 
they want to see ; and thus, without regard to the goodness or the 
principles of the paper. I know men in this town who take one 
journal mainly for its advertisements; and they must take the 
Times because everything is advertised in it ; for the same reason 
advertisers must advertise in the Times. If we had a duty on ad- 
vertisements, I will not say it would be impossible to build a new 
concern up in New York against the competition of the older ones ; 
but I do say, it would be impossible to preserve the weaker papers 
from being swallowed up by the stronger. 

Mr. Cobden — Do you then consider the fact, that the Times 
newspaper for the last fifteen years has been increasing so largely 
in circulation, is to be accounted for mainly by the existence of the 
advertisement duty ? 

Mr. Greeley — Yes ; much more than the stamp. By the oper- 
ation of the advertisement duty, an advertisement is charged ten 
times as much in one paper as in another. An advertisement in 
the Times may be worth five pounds, while in another paper it is 
only worth one pound ; but the duty is the same. 

Mr. Rich — The greater 'the number of small advertisements in 
papers, the greater the advantage to their proprietors. 

Mr. Greeley — Yes. Suppose the cost of a small advertisement 
to be five shillings, the usual charge in the Times, if you have to 
pay a shilling or eighteen pence duty, that advertisement is worth 
nothing in a journal with a fourth part of the circulation of the 
Times. 

Chairman — Does it not appear to you that the taxes on the 
press are hostile to one another ; in the first place, lessening the 
circulation of papers by means of the stamp duty, we diminish the 
consumption of paper, and therefore lessen the amount of paper 
duty ; secondly by diminishing the sale of papers through the 
stamp, we lessen the number of advertisements, and therefore the 
receipts of the advertisement duty? 

Mr. Greeley — I should say that if the government were, simply 
as a matter of revenue, to fix a duty, say of half a penny per pound, 
on paper, it would be easily collected, and produce more money ; 
and then, a laAV which is equal in its operation does not require 
any considerable number of officers to collect the duty, and it 
would require no particular vigilance ; and the duty on paper 
alone would be most equal and most efficient as a revenue duty. 



HORACE GREELEY. 103 

Chairman — It is clear, then, that the effect of the stamp and 
advertisement duty is to lessen the amount of the receipts from the 
duty on paper. 

Mr. Greeley — Enormously. I see that the circulation of daily 
papers in London is but sixty thousand, against a hundred thou- 
sand in New York ; while the tendency is more to concentrate on 
London than on New York. Not a tenth part of our daily papers 
are printed in New York. 

Mr. Cobden — Do you consider that there are upwards of a mil- 
lion papers issued daily from the press in the United States ? 

Mr. Greeley — I should say about a million ; I cannot say up- 
wards. I think there are about two hundred and fifty daily jour- 
nals published in the United States. 

Mr. Cobden — At what amount of population does a town in the 
United States begin to have a daily paper ? They first of all begin 
with a weekly paper, do they not ? 

Mr. Greeley — Yes. The general rule is, that each county will 
have one weekly newspaper. In all the free States, if a county 
have a population of twenty thousand, it has two papers, one for 
each party. The general average in the agricultural counties, is 
one local journal to every ten thousand inhabitants. When a town 
grows to have fifteen thousand inhabitants in and about it, then it 
has a daily paper ; but sometimes that is the case when it has as 
few as ten thousand ; it depends more on the business of a place 
than its population. But fifteen thousand may be stated as the av- 
erage at which a daily paper commences ; at twenty thousand they 
have two, and so on. In central towns like Buffalo, Rochester, 
and Troy, they have from three to five daily journals, each of which 
prints a semi-weekly or a weekly journal. 

Mr. Rich — Have your papers much circulation outside the towns 
in which they are published ? 

Mr. Greeley — The county in the general limit ; though some 
have a judicial district of five or six counties. 

Mr. Rich — "Would the New York paper, for instance, have 
much circulation in Charleston? 

Mr. Greeley — The New York Herald, I think, which is con- 
sidered the journal most friendly to Southern interests, has a con- 
sederable circulation there. 

Chairman — When a person proposes to publish a paper in 
New York, he is not required to go to any office to register him- 
self, or to give security that he will not insert libels or seditious 
matter? A newspaper published is not subject to any liability 
more than other persons ? 



104 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

Mr. Greeley — No; no more than a man that starts a black- 
smith shop. 

Chairman — They do not pi-esume in the United States, that 
because a man is going to print news in a paper, he is going to 
libel ? 

Mr. Greeley — No ; nor do they presume that his libeling 
would be worth much, unless he is a responsible character. 

Mr. Cobden — From what you have stated with regard to the 
circulation of the daily papers in New York, it appears that a very 
large proportion of the adult population must be customers for 
them ? 

Mr. Greeley — Yes ; I think three-fourths of all the families 
take a daily paper of some kind. 

Mr. Cobden — The purchasers of the daily papers must consist 
of a different class from those in England ; mechanics must pur- 
chase them ? 

Mr. Greeley — Every mechanic takes a paper, or nearly every 
one. 

Mr. Cobden — Do those people generally get them before they 
leave home for their work ? 

Mr. Gbeeley — Yes ; and you are complained of if you do 
not furnish a man with his newspaper at his breakfast; he wants 
to read it between six and seven usually. 

Mr. Cobden — Then a ship-builder, or a cooper, or a joiner 
needs his daily paper at his breakfast time? 

Mr. Greeley — Yes ; and he may take it with him to read at 
his dinner, between twelve and one ; but the rule is, that he wants 
his paper at his breakfast. 

Mr. Cobden — After he has finished his breakfast or his dinnei", 
he may be found reading the daily newspapers, just as the people 
of the upper classes do in England ? 

Mr. Greeley — Yes ; if they do ? 

Mr. Cobden — And that is quite common, is it not ? 

Mr. Greeley — Almost universal, I think. There is a very 
low class — a good many foreigners — who do not know how to 
read ; but no native, I think. 

Mr. Ewart — Do the agricultural laborers read much? 

Mr. Greeley — Yes ; they take our weekly papers, which they 
receive through the post generally. 

Mr. Cobden — The working people in New York are not in the 
habit of resorting to public houses to read the newspapers, are 
they? 



HORACE GREELEY. 105 

Mr. Greeley — They go to public houses, hut not to read the 
papers. It is not the general practice ; hut, still, we have quite a 
class who do so. 

Mr. Cobden — The newspapers, then, are not the attraction to 
the public houses ? 

Mr. Greeley — No ; I think a very small proportion of our read- 
ing class go there at all ; those that I have seen there are mainly 
the foreign population, those who do not read. 

Chairman — Are there any papers published in New York, or 
in other parts, which may be said to be of an obscene or immoral 
character ? 

Mr. Greeley — "We call the New York Herald a very bad paper 
— those who do not like it ; but that is not the cheapest. 

Ch airman — Have you heard of a paper called the Town, 
published in this country, with pictures of a certain character in 
it ? Have you any publication in the United States of that charac- 
ter? 

Mr. Greeley — Not daily papers. There are weekly papers got 
up from time to time called the Scorpion, the Flash, and so on, 
whose purpose is to extort money from parties who can be threat- 
ened with exposure of iimnoral practices, or for visiting infamous 
houses. 

Mr. Ewart — They do not last, do they ? 

Mr. Greeley — I do not know of any one being continued for 
any considerable time. If one dies, another is got up, and that goes 
down. Our cheap daily papers, the very cheapest, are, as a class, 
quite as discreet in their conduct and conversation as other jour- 
nals. They do not embody the same amount of talent ; they de- 
vote themselves mainly to news. They are not party journals; 
they are not given to harsh language with regard to public men ; 
they are very moderate. 

Mr. Ewart — Is scurility or personality common in the publica- 
tions in the United States? 

Mr. Greeley — It is not common ; it is much less frequent than 
it was ; but it is not absolutely unknown. 

Mr. Cobden — What is the circulation of the New York Her- 
ald? 

Mr. Greeley — Twenty-five thousand, I believe. 

Mr. Cobden — Is that an influential paper in America? 

Mr. Greeley — I think not. 

Mr. Cobden — It has a higher reputation in Europe, probably 
than at home. 



106 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

Mr. Greeley — A certain class of journals in this country find it 
their interest or pleasure to quote it a good deal. 

Chairman — As the demand is extensive, is the remuneration 
for the services of the literary men "who are employed on the press 
good ? 

Mr. Greeley — The prices of literary labor are more moderate 
than in this country. The highest salary, I think, that would be 
commanded by any one connected with the press would be five 
thousand dollars — the highest that could be thought of. I have 
not heard of higher than three thousand. 

Mr. Rich — "What would be about the ordinary remuneration ? 

Mr. Greeley — In our own concern it is, besides the principal 
editor, from fifteen hundred dollars down to five hundred. I think 
that is the usual range. 

Chairman — Are your leading men in America, in point of lit- 
erary ability, employed from time to time upon the press as an oc- 
cupation ? 

Mr. Greeley — It is beginning to be so, but it has not been the 
custom. There have been leading men connected with the press ; 
but the press has not been usually conducted by the most power- 
ful men. With a few exceptions, the leading political journals are 
conducted ably, and they are becoming more so; and, with a 
wider diffusion of the circulation, the press is more able to pay 
for it. 

Mr. Rich — Is it a profession apart ? 

Mr. Greeley — No ; usually the men have been brought up to 
the bar, to the pulpit, and so on ; they are literary men. 

Chairman — I presume that the non-reading class in the United 
States is a very limited one ? 

Mr. Greeley — Yes ; except in the slave States. 

Chairman — Do not. you consider that newspaper reading is 
calculated to keep up a habit of reading? 

Mr. Greeley — I think it is worth all the schools in the country. 
I think it creates a taste for reading in every child's mind, and it 
increases his interest in his lessons ; he is attracted from always 
seeing a newspaper and hearing it read I think. 

Chairman — Supposing that you had your schools as now, but 
that your newspaper press were reduced within the limits of the 
press in England, do you not think that the habit of reading ac- 
quired at school would be frequently laid aside ? 

Mr. Greeley— I think that the habit would not be acquired, 
and that paper reading would fall into disuse. 



HORACE GREELEY. 107 

Mi\ Ewart — Having observed both countries, can you state 
whether the press has greater influence on public opinion in the 
United States than in England, or the reverse ? 

Mr. Greeley — I think it has more influence with us. I do not 
know that any class is despotically governed by the press, but its 
influence is more universal ; every one reads and talks about it 
with us, and more weight is laid upon intelligence than on editor- 
ials ; the paper which brings the quickest news is the thing looked 
to. 

Mr. Ewart — The leading article has not so much influence as in 
England ? 

Mr. Greeley — No ; the telegraphic dispatch is the great point. 

Mr. Cobden — Observing our newspapers and comparing them 
with the American papers, do you find that we make much less 
use of electric telegraph for transmitting news than in America ? 

Mr. Greeley — Not a hundredth part as much as we do. 

Mr. Cobden — An impression prevails in this country that our 
newspaper press incurs a great deal more expense to expedite 
news than you do in New York. Are you of that opinion? 

Mr. Greeley — I do not know what your expense is. I should 
say that a hundred thousand dollars a year is paid by our Associa- 
tion of the six leading daily papers, besides what each gets separ- 
ately for itself. 

Mr. Cobden — Twenty thousand pounds a year is paid by our 
Association, consisting of six papers, for what you get in com- 
mons ? 

Mr. Greeley — Yes ; we telegraph a great deal in the United 
States. Assuming that a scientific meeting was held at Cincinnati 
this year, we should telegraph the reports from that place, and I 
presume other journals would have special reporters to report the 
proceedings at length. "We have a report every day, fifteen hun- 
dred miles, from New Orleans daily ; from St. Louis too, and oth- 
er places. 

The Committee then adjourned. 

The duty on advertisements was soon after removed entirely, 
and the stamp duty was only retained for revenue purposes. 

After a stay of nearly two months in London, Mr. Greeley 
resumed his travels, proceeding to Paris via Dover and Calais, 
and spending eight days visiting nearly all the objects of inter- 
est in that brilliant capital. He of course inspected the Tuil- 
eries, but was not particularly impressed with their architect- 



108 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

ural features, and considered the cathedral of Notre Dame 
the most imposing edifice in Paris. He spent two days exam 
ining the art treasures of the Louvre, and was delighted with 
what he saw ; but his visit to the Palace of Versailles suggest- 
ed principally reflections on the evil effect of imperial govern- 
ment, and the debasing influence on Art, of continued royal 
patronage, which engenders servility, and curbs the freedom 
of genius. 

He left Paris for Lyons, on the 16th of June, and thence 
proceeded across Savoy and Mount Cenis into Italy, and spent 
twenty-one days in this sweet, historic land, visiting Turin, 
Genoa, Rome, Florence, Ferrara, Bologna, Padua, Venice and 
Milan. Not even amid Italian scenes, so bathed in the ro- 
mance of history, and permeated by the spirit and splendor of 
the past, was this American traveler carried into idle reverie, 
or poetical dreamings. His richly cultivated mind appreciated 
the beauty and historic interest on all sides, but his natural 
benevolence and common sense suggested rather reflections c x 
the condition of the people, the languor in business, and the 
enervated social system, evident nearly everywhere. He noted 
at Genoa, that the churches were worth millions of dollars, 
while the school-houses would not bring fifty thousand dollars, 
and that at Pisa a hundred thousand dollars could be spent in 
fire-works, to celebrate the anniversary of a patron saint, and 
yet nothing could be spared for popular education. The mul- 
titude of priests he met everywhere, impressed him unfavora- 
bly ; and he observed " the black-coated gentry fairly over- 
shadow the land with their shovel-hats, so that corn has no 
chance of sunshine." In Venice he comments on the indications 
of general decadence and social lethargy, and the cheerless as- 
pect of the present, overshadowed in his kindly mind the 
"grandeur, gloom and glory" of the past. At Pome, he 
viewed the famous Coliseum, and was deeply impressed ; and 
the incidental circumstance that prayers were being offered 
witliin the ruins, b} 7 a body of monks, for the souls of martyred 
christians, hightened the interest of the occasion. In describing 



HORACE GREELEY. 109 

this visit, he adds: "Many checkered years, and scenes of stir- 
ring interest mnst intervene to efface from my memory that 
sunset and those strange prayers in the Coliseum." He 
thought St. Peter's the "Niagara of buildings," and rendered it 
a proper tribute of admiration. But we cannot dwell on 
those Italian days of his, but must pass on to other matters. 
He re-crossed the Alps by the St. Gothard pass, and readied, 
the Rhine at Basle, proceeding down the celebrated river to 
Cologne, and thence across Belgium by Aix-la-Chapelle and 
Brussels into France, and journeyed back to London, by way 
of Paris, Dieppe and New Haven. He remained here only a 
short time, when he started for Newcastle-on-Tyne, and other 
points in the North of England ; and thence across the border 
in to Scotland, visiting Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other cities, 
and then crossing to Ireland, where he visited nearly all the 
prominent cities; returning through Wales to Liverpool, and 
on Wednesday, the 16th of August, he embarked in the steam- 
ship Baltic, homeward bound. The weather was favorable, 
and the passage pleasant, and the shores of home were reached 
safely. The vessel arrived at the wharf about six o'clock in 
the morning, and Mr. Greeley's first act on landing, was to 
get out an " extra " in advance of all contemporaries, contain- 
ing the foreign news by the Baltic, he having " made it up " 
for publication on board. This done, he turned his face to- 
wards his own house. 

His first trip to Europe was one of the most interesting 
events in the life of Mr. Greeley, but we have been compelled 
to merely sketch its outlines, and many important incidents 
have been omitted. Enough has been said, however, to indi- 
cate how busily he employed his time while abroad, how use- 
fully to himself and toothers. It was a rapid tour, but his 
powers of observation were always on the alert, and much val- 
uable information and experience were acquired, to be applied 
to practical results in the future. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE GREELEY FARM — SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE — ACROSS THE 

CONTINENT. 




HE public events immediately succeeding the return of 
Mr. Greeley from England, or those embraced within 
the following year, were of an interesting and exciting 
character, but belong rather to the political history of the coun- 
try, and it is unnecessary to recapitulate them in this brief bio- 
graphical sketch. The defeat of Gen. Scott, and the election of 
Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, to the Presidency in 1852, 
was practically, the dissolution of the Whig party, and as one 
result of this event the New York Tribune ceased to be a strict 
party paper, and its leading editor to be a party man. His con- 
victions as to political principles have always been too firmly 
founded in his moral nature to be easily changed, but the disrup- 
tion of the political organization with which he had been identi- 
fied, occurring as it did, at a period when maturing years had 
tempered his mind with a deeper thoughtfulness, freed him from 
an alliance calculated to restrict, and in our opinion, expanded 
the sphere of his usefulness. It enabled him also to concentrate 
his opposition to the slavery system, and to become the prime 
mover towards its ultimate destruction. Indeed, it is in this di- 
rection that he has rendered American civilization his most signal 
and important service, for more than any one man living has he 
assisted to expunge the dark and baleful stain which disfigured 
the flag of American freedom — but of this more hereafter. 

We have seen that the early years of the life of Horace Gree- 



112 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

ley were passed in the country, and that he was fully acquainted 
with the widest phase of farm life. The associations of boyhood 
were not forgotten in maturer years — he has always been fond of 
the country, and it is not surprising to find him seeking recrea- 
tion as a man in the pursuits he followed by compulsion as a boy. 
His means now enabled him to gratify his desire for a country 
home, a place where he could combine the pleasure of farming, 
and at the same time find seclusion and quiet during his intervals 
of rest from the busy occupations and exciting scenes of the 
metropolis. He set about looking for such a place, having a due 
regard for the requisites demanded by the tastes of his wife : 
" 1. A peerless spring of pure, soft, living water ; 2, a cascade 
or brawling brook; 3, woods largely composed of evergreens." 
He succeeded finally in purchasing a piece of land to his taste? 
composed of above seventy-five acres, near the Harlem railroad, 
and about thirty-four miles from New York, and nine miles above 
White Plains. A pretty mill stream bearing the Indian name 
Chappaqua, adds interest to the spot, and gives a name to the 
" Modest Village of twenty or thirty houses," which lies close to 
the farm, and as there was several water springs and about 
twenty-five acres of splendid woods on the place, Mrs. Greeley's 
pre-requi sites were fully represented. On this point he says : 
"Those who object to my taste in choosing for my home, a 
rocky, woody hillside, sloping to the north-west, with a bog and 
its font, cannot judge me fairly, unless they consider the above 
requirements." It is unnecessary to enter into a history of Mr. 
Greeley's farming experience on this place, particularly as he 
has given it so fully and graphically in his " Recollections." It 
is enough to add that he exhibited in this, the occupation of his 
leisure hours, the same energy which characterized his business 
pursuits. He improved the farm in every way that a scientific 
taste and practical knowledge could suggest, and transformed it 
into a " Model Farm," and on this place he passed some of the 
happiest years of his life. Early in the year 1853, the Tribune 
was considerably enlarged, involving an increase in the annual 
expenditure of nearly $60,000, and although the circulation 



HORACE GREELEY, 113 

was largely increased, and the enterprise of the great journal at- 
tracted the attention and commendation of the press of the coun- 
try, yet the profits did not sufficiently balance the increased out- 
lay, and subsequently the paper was slightly reduced in size. 
About this time a high compliment was paid to the Tribune in 
the English House of Commons. In a debate on the advertise- 
ment duty, Mr. Bright, in the course of a remarkable speech, 
produced the paper before the House, and after highly eulogizing 
its character, said there was not a better paper published in Lon- 
don, and added, " Here there was a newspaper advocating great 
principles, and conducted in all respects with the greatest pro- 
priety — a newspaper in which he found not a syllable that he 
might not put on his table and allow his wife and daughter to 
read with satisfaction — and this was placed on the table every 
morning for Id" 

In the year 1854 the name of Mr. Greeley was frequently 
mentioned in connection with the governorship at New York, and 
there is not the smallest doubt but he could have secured the 
nomination had he so desired. Had he been nominated, his elec- 
tion would have been certain. During this year an entertaining 
volume, having for its subject the Life and Career of Mr. Gree- 
ley, was written, the author being Mr. James Parton. 

In the Spring of 1855, Mr. Greeley again visited Europe, 
and was absent about three months — this was also the first year 
of the Paris Exhibition. He went direct to London to meet his 
wife who had spent the winter there with her children, and after 
a few days he ran over in advance to Paris, and rented a little 
cottage in the vicinity of the Champs Elysees, and was soon 
rejoined by his family and two female friends, and the husband 
of one of them. Being there comfortably settled, the party set 
about sight-seeing in the French capital. Spending days at the 
Exhibition and visiting the various other points of interest. 

Perhaps the most remarkable incident connected with this 
European trip, was the arrest of Mr. Greeley in Paris for debt, 
or a claim so named, and it may be interesting to give some par- 



114 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

ticulars of the affair, and this cannot be done in a better way 
than by giving the narrative as told by himself. It is as follows : 

HORACE GREELEY IN A FRENCH PRISON — THE ARREST. 

I had been looking at things if not into them for a good many 
years prior to yesterday. I had climbed mountains and descended 
into mines, had groped in caves and scaled precipices, seen Venice 
and Cincinnati, Dublin and Mineral Point, Niagara and St. Goth- 
ard, and really supposed I was approximating a middling outside 
knowledge of things in general. I had been chosen defendant in 
several libel suits, and been flattered with the information that my 
censures were deemed of more consequence than those of other 
people, and should be paid for accordingly. I have been through 
twenty of our States, yet never in jail outside of New York, and 
over half Europe, yet never looked into one. Here I had been see- 
ing Paris for the last six weeks, visiting this sight, then that, till 
there seemed little remaining worth looking at or after — yet I had 
never once thought of looking into a debtor's prison. I should 
probably have gone away next week, as ignorant in that regard as 
I came, when circumstances favored me most unexpectedly with 
an inside view of this famous " Maison de Detention," or Prison 
for Debtors, 70 Rue de Clichy. I think what I have seen here? 
fairly told, must be instructive and interesting, and I suppose 
others will tell the story if I do not — and I don't know any one 
whose opportunities will enable him to tell it so accurately as I 
can. So here goes. 

But first let me explain and insist on the important distinction 
between inside and outside views of a prison. People fancy they 
have been in a prison where they have by courtesy been inside of 
the gates ; but that is properly an outside view — at best, the view 
accorded to an outsider. It gives you no proper idea of the place 
at all— no access to its penetralia. The difference even between 
this outside and the proper inside view is very broad indeed. The 
greenness of those who don't know how the world looks from the 
wrong side of the gratings is pitiable. Yet how many reflect on 
the disdain with which the lion must regard the bumpkin who 
perverts his goadstick to the ignoble use of stirring said lion up ! 
Or how many suspect that the grin wherewith the baboon contem- 
plates the human ape, wdio with umbrella at arm's length is pok- 
ing Jocko for his doxy's delectation, is one of contempt rather 
than complacency ! Rely on it, the world seen here behind the 
gratings is very different in aspect from that same world other- 



HORACE GREELEY. 115 

wise inspected. Others may think so — I know it. And this is 
how : 

I had been down at the Palace of Industry and returned to my 
lodgings, when, a little before four o'clock yesterday afternoon, 
four strangers called for me. By the help of my courier I soon 
learned that they had a writ of arrest for me at the suit of one 
Mons. Lechesne, sculptor, affirming that he sent a statue to the 
New York Crystal Palace Exhibition, at or on the way to which 
it had been broken, so that it could not be (at all events it had not 
been) restored to him ; wherefore he asked of me, as a director 
and representative of the Crystal Palace Association, to pay him 
" douze mille francs," or $2,500. 

Not happening to have the change, and no idea of paying this 
lemand if I had it, I could only signify those facts ; whereupon 
they told me that I was under arrest, and must go along, which I 
readily did. We drove circuitously to the sculptor's residence at 
the other end of Paris, waited his convenience for a long half- 
liour, and then went to the President Judge who had issued the 
writ. 

I briefly explained to him my side of the case, when he asked 
me if I wished to give bail. I told him I would give good bail for 
cay appearauce at court at any time, but that I knew no man in 
Paris whom [ felt willing to ask to become my security for the 
payment of so large a sum as $2,500. After a little parley I named 
Judge Piatt, United States Secretary of Legation, as one who, 1 
felt confident, would recognize for my appearance when wanted, 
ind this suggestion met with universal assent. Twice over I care- 
fully explained that I preferred going to pi-ison to asking any 
friend to give bail for the payment in any case of this claim, and 
knew I was fully understood. So we all, except the Judge, drove 
aff together to the Legation. 

" There we found Judge P., who readily agreed to recognize as 
[ required ; but now the plaintiff and his lawyer refused to accept 
turn as security in any way, alleging that he was privileged from 
wrest, by his office. He offered to give his check on Green & Co., 
bankers, for the 12,000 francs in dispute as security for my appear- 
ance ; but they would not have him in any shape. While we were 
chattering, Mr. Maunsell B. Field, United States Commissioner in 
the French Exposition, came along and offered to join Mr. Piatt 
in the recognizance ; but nothing would do. Mr. Field then 
Dflered to raise the money demanded; but I said No; if the 
agreement before the Judge was not adhered to by the other side 
t would give no bail whatever, but go to prison. High words en- 



116 LIFE AND CAREER OP 

sued, and the beginning of a scuffle, in the midst of which I, half 
unconsciously, descended from the carnage. Of course I was 
ordered back instanter, and obeyed so soon as I understood the 
order, but Ave were all by this time losing temper. 

As putting me in jail would simply secure my forthcoming when 
wanted, and as I was ready to give any amount of security for 
this, which the other side had once agreed to take, I thought they 
were rather crowding matters in the course they were taking. 
So, as I was making my friends too late for a pleasant dinner-party 
at Trois Treres, where I had expected to join them, I closed the 
discussion by insisting that we should drive off. 

Crossing the avenue Champs Elysees the next moment, our 
horses struck another horse, took fright, and ran until reined up 
against a tree, disabling the concern. My cortege of officers got 
out ; I attempted to follow, but was thrust back very roughly and 
held in with superfluous energy, since they had had abundant op- 
portunity to see that I had no idea of getting away from them. I 
had in fact evinced ample determination to enjoy their delightful 
society to the utmost. 

At last they had to transfer me to another carriage, but they 
made such a parade of it, and insisted on taking hold of me so 
numerously and so fussily (this being just the most thronged and 
conspicuous locality in Paris), that I came near losing my temper 
again. We got along, however, and in due time arrived at this 
spacious, substantial, secure establishment, No. 70 Rue de Clichy. 

1 was brought in through three or four heavy iron doors to the 
office of the Governor, where I was properly received. Here I 
was told I must stay till nine o'clock, since the President Judge 
had allowed me till that hour to find bail. In vain I urged that I 
had refused to give bail, would give none, and wanted to be shown 
to my cell — I must stay here till nine o'clock. So I ordered some- 
thing for dinner, and amused myself by looking at the ball play, 
&c, of the prisoners in the yard, to whose immunities I was not 
yet eligible, but I had the privilege of looking in through the 
barred windows. The yard is one of the best I have ever seen 
anywhere — has a good many trees, and some flowers, and, as the 
wall is at least fifteen feet high, and another of twenty surround- 
ing it, with guards with loaded muskets always pacing between, 
I should judge the danger of burglary or other annoyances from 
without, very moderate. 

My first visitor was Judge Mason, U. S. Embassador, accom- 
panied by Mr. Kirby, one of the attaches of the Embassy. Judge 
M. had heard of my luck from the legation, and was willing to 



HORACE GREELEY. 117 

serve me to any extent, and in any manner. I was reminded by my 
position of the case of the prying - Yankee who undertook to fish 
out a gratuitous opinion on a knotty point in a lawsuit in which 
he was involved. "Supposing," said he, to an eminent counsellor, 
"you were involved in such and such a difficulty, what would you 
do?" "Sir," said the counsellor with becoming gravity, "I 
should take the very best legal advice I could obtain." 

I told Judge M. that I wanted neither money nor bail, but a 
first-rate French lawyer, who could understand my statements in 
English, at the very earliest moment. Judge M. left me to call on 
Mr. James Monroe, banker, and send me a lawyer as soon as could 
be. This was done, but it was eight o'clock on Saturday night, 
before which hour at this season most eminent Parisians have left 
for their country residences ; and no lawyer of the proper stamp 
and standing could then be or has yet been found. 

THE INCARCERATION. 

At the designated hour I was duly installed and admitted to all 
the privileges of Clichy. By ten o'clock each of us lodgers had 
retired to our several apartments (about eight feet by five), and 
an obliging functionary came around and locked out all rascally 
intruders. I don't think I ever before slept in a place so perfectly 
secure. At six this morning this extra protection was withdrawn, 
and each of us was thenceforth obliged to keep watch over his 
own valuables. "We uniformly keep good hours here in Clichy, 
which is what not many large hotels in Paris can boast of. 

The bedroom appointments are not of a high order, as is reason- 
able, since we are only charged for them four sous (cents) per 
night, washing extra. The sheets are rather of a hickory order 
(mine were given me clean) ; the bed is indifferent, but I have 
slept on worse ; the window lacks a curtain or blinds, but in its 
stead are four strong upright iron bars, which are a perfect safe- 
guard against getting up in the night and pitching or falling out 
so as to break your neck, as any one who went out would certainly 
do. (I am in the fifth or highest story.) Perhaps one of my prede- 
cessors was a somnambulist. I have two chairs (one less than I 
am entitled to), two little tables (probably one of them extra v by 
some mistake), and a cupboard which may once have been clean. 
The pint washbowl and half-pint pitcher, candles, &c, T have 
ordered, and pay for. I am a little ashamed to own that my repose 
has been indifferent ■ but then I never do sleep well in a strango 
place. 



118 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

Descending 1 to the common room on the lower floor this morn- 
ing, I find there an American (from Boston), who has met me 
often and knew me at once, though I could not have called him by 
name. He seemed rather amazed to meet me here (I believe he 
last saw me at the Astor House), but greeted me very cordially, 
and we ordered breakfast for both in my room. It was not a 
sumptuous meal, but we enjoyed it. Next he made me acquainted 
with some other of our best fellow-lodgers, and four of us agreed 
to dine together after business hours. Before breakfast a friend 
from the outer world (M. Vattemare) had found access to me, 
though the rules of the prison allow no visitors till ten o'clock. I 
needed first of all lawyers, not yet procurable ; next law-books 
(American), which Mr. Vattemare knew just where to lay his 
hands on. 1 had them all on hand, and my citations looked up 
long before I had any help to use them. But let my own affairs 
wait a little till I dispense some of my gleanings in Clichy. 

This is perhaps the only large dwelling-house in Paris Avhere no 
one ever sutlers from hunger. Each person incarcerated is 
allowed a franc per day to live on ; if this is not forthcoming from 
his creditor, he is at once turned out to pick up a living as he can. 
While he remains here he must have his franc per day, paid every 
third day. From this is deducted four sous per day for his bed- 
ding, and one sou for his fire (in the kitchen), leaving him fifteen 
sous net, and cooking fire paid for. 

This will keep him in bread any how. But there exists among 
the prisoners, and is always maintained, a "Philanthropic So- 
ciety," which by cooking altogether and dividing into messes, is 
enabled to give every subscriber to its articles a very fair din- 
ner for sixteen sous (eleven cents), and a scantier one for barely 
nine sous. He who has no friends but the inevitable franc per 
day may still have a nine-sous dinner almost every day, and a six- 
teen-sous feast on Sunday, by living on bread and water, or being 
so sick as not to need anything for a couple of days each week. 
I regret to say that the high price of food of late has cramped the 
resources of the " Philanthropic Society," so that it has been 
obliged to appeal to the public for aid. I trust it will not appeal 
in vain. It is an example of the advantage of association, whose 
benefits no one will dispute. 

I never met a more friendly and social people than the inmates 
of Clichy. Before I had been there two hours this morning 
though most of them speak only French, and I but English, the 
outlines of my case were generally known, my character and 
Btanding canvassed and dilated on, and I had a dozen fast friends 



HORACE GREELEY. 119 

in another hour; had I been able to speak French, they would 
have been a hundred. Of course, we are not all saints here, and 
make no pretensions to be ; some of us are incorrigible spend- 
thrifts — desperately fast men, hurried to ruin by association with 
still faster women— probably some unlucky rogues among us, and 
very likely a fool or two ; though as a class I am sure my associ- 
ates will compare, favorably, in intelligence and intellect with so 
many of the next men you meet on the Boulevards or in Broad- 
way. Several of them are men of decided ability and energy— 
the temporary victims of other men's rascality or their own over- 
sanguine enterprise — some times shipwreck, fire or other una- 
voidable misfortune. 

A more hearty and kindly set of men I never met in my life 
than are those who can speak English ; I have acquired important 
help from three or four of them in copying and translating papers ; 
and never was I more zealously nor effectively aided than by those 
acquaintances of to-day, to not one of whom would I dare to otter 
money for the service. Where could I match this out of Clichy? 

Let me be entirely candid ; I say nothing of " Liberty," save to 
caution outsiders in France to be equally modest, but "Equality 
and Fraternity" I have found prevailing here more thoroughly 
than elsewhere in Europe. Still, we have not realized the 
Social Millennium, even in Clichy. Some of us were born to gain 
our living by the hardest and most meagrely rewarded labor ; 
others to live idly and sumptuously on the earnings of others. Of 
course these vices of an irrational and decaying social state are 
not instantly eradicated by our abrupt removal to this mansion. 
Some of us cook, while others only know how to eat, and so 
require assistance in the preparation of our food, as none is cooked 
or even provided for us, and our intercourse with the outer world 
is subject to limitations. Those of us who lived generously afore- 
time, and are in for gentlemanly sums, are very apt to have money, 
which the luckless chaps who are in for a beggarly hundred francs 
or so, and have no fixed income beyond the franc per day, are 
very glad to earn by doing us acts of kindness. One of these at- 
tached himself to me immediately on my taking possession of my 
apartment, and proceeded to make my bed, bring me basin and 
pitcher of water, matches, lights, &c, for which I expect to pay 
him — these articles being reckoned superfluities in Clichy. But 
no such aristocratic distinction as master, no such degrading ap- 
pellation as servant, is tolerated in this community ; this philan- 
thropic fellow-boarder is known to all as my " auxiliary." Where 



120 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

has the stupid world outside known how to drape the heard reali- 
ties of life with fig-leaf so graceful as this ? 

So of all titular distinctions, we pretend to have abjured titles 
of honor in America, and the only consequence is that everybody 
has a title — either Honorable, or General, or Colonel, or Reverend, 
or at the very least, Esquire. But here in Clichy all such empty 
and absurd prefixes are absolutely unknown — even names, Chris- 
tian or family, are discarded as useless, antiquated lumber. Every 
lodger is known by the number of his room only; mine is 139; 
and whenever a friend calls, a " Commissioner " comes in from the 
outer apartments to the great hall, sacred to our common use, and 
begins calling out, " Cent-trente-ueuf," (phonetically " sent-tran- 
nuf,") at the top of his voice, and goes on yelling as he climbs, in 
the hope of finding or calling me short of ascending to my fifth 
story sanctuary. To nine-tenths of my comrades I am only known 
as " san-tran-nuf." My auxiliary is No. 54, and when I need his 
aid I go singing " Saukan-eat," after the same fashion. Equality 
being thus rigidly preserved, in spite of slight diversities of for- 
tune, the jealousies, rivalries, and heart-burnings which keep 
most of mankind in a ferment, are here absolutely unknown. 
I never befoi'e talked so much Avith so many people inti- 
mately acquainted with each other without hearing something 
said or insinuated to one another's prejudice ; here there is noth- 
ing of the sort. Some folks outside are here fitted with charac- 
ters which they would hardly consider flattering — some laws and 
usages get the blessings they richly deserve — but among ourselves 
all is harmony and good will. How would Meniccc's, the Hotel 
de Ville, or even the Tuilleries, like to compare notes with us on 
this head ? 

Our social intercourse with outsiders is under most enlightened 
regulations. A person calls who wishes to see one of us, and is 
thereupon admitted through two or three doors, but not within 
several locks of us. Here he gives his card and pays two sous to 

a Commissioner to take it to No. -, of whom the interview is 

solicited. No. being found, takes the card, scrutinizes it, 

and, if he chooses to see the expected visitor, writes a request for 
his admission. This is taken to a functionary, who grants the re- 
quest, and the visitor is then brought into a sort of neutral recep- 
tion-room, outside of the prison proper, but a good way inside of 
the hall wherein the visitor has hitherto tarried. But let the 
ledger say no, and the visitor must instantly walk out with a very 
tall flea in his ear. So perfect an arrangement for keeping duns, 
bores (writ-servers even), and all such enemies of human happi- 



HORACE GREELEY. 121 

ness at a distance is found scarcely anywhere else — at all events 
not in editor's rooms — I am sure of that. But yesterday an old 
resident here, who ought to have heen up to the trap, was told 
that a man wished to see him a moment at the nearest grate, and 
heing completely off his guard, he went immediately down, with- 
out observing or requiring the proper formalities, and was in- 
stantly served with a fresh writ. " Sir," said he, with proper in- 
dignation, to the sneak of an officer (who had doubtless made his 
way in here by favor or bribery), " if you ever serve me that trick 
again, you will go out of here half killed." However, he had 
mainly his own folly to blame ; he should have stood upon his 
reserved rights, and bade the outsider send up his card like a gen- 
tleman, if he aspired to a gentleman's society. 

And this brings me to the visiting-room, where I have seen 
many friends during the day, including two United States minis- 
ters, beside almost every one belonging to our Legation here, 
three bankers, and nearly all the Americans I know in Paris, but 
not one French lawyer of the standing required, for it seems im- 
possible to find one in Paris to-day. 

This room can hardly be called a parlor, all things considered ; 
but it has been crowded all day (ten to six) with wives and female 
friends visiting one or other of us insiders — perhaps it may be most 
accurately characterized as the kissing-room. I should like to 
speak of the phases of life here from hour to hour presented — of 
the demonstrations of fervent affection, the anxious consolations, 
the confidential whisperings, and the universal desire of each hasty 
tete-a-tete to respect the sacredness of others' confidence, so that 
fifteen or twenty couples converse here by the hour within a space 
thirty feet by twenty, yet no one knows, because no one wishes to 
know, what any other couple are saying. But I must hurry over 
all this, or my letter will never have an end. 

Formerly, Clichy was in bad repute, on account of the facility 
wherewith all manner of females called upon and mingled with the 
male lodgers in the inner sanctum. All this, however, has been 
corrected ; and no woman is now admitted beyond the public kiss- 
ing-room, except on an express order from the prefecture of po- 
lice, which is only granted to the well-authenticated wife or child 
of an inmate. (The female prison is in an entirely separate wing 
of the building.) The enforcement of this rule is most rigid ; and, 
while I am not inclined to be vaingloi'ious, and do not doubt that 
other large domiciles in Paris are models of propriety and virtue, 
yet this I do say, that the domestic morals of Clichy may safely 
challenge a comparison with those of Paris generally. I might put 



122 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

the case more strongly, but it is best to keep within the truth. 

So with regard to liquor. They keep saying there is no Prohib- 
itory Law in France ; but they mistake, if Clichy is in France. 

No ardent spirits are brought into this well-regulated establish- 
ment, unless for medical use, except in express violation of law ; 
and the search and seizure clauses here are a great deal more vig- 
orous and better enforced than in Maine. I know a little is smug- 
gled in notwithstanding, mainly by officials, for money goes a great 
way in France ; but no woman comes in without being felt all over 
(by a woman) for concealed bottles of liquor. There was a small 
flask on our (private) dinner-table to-day of what was called 
brandy, and smelt like a compound of spirits of turpentine and 
diluted aqua-fortis (for adulteration is a vice which prevails even 
here) ; but not a glass is now smuggled in where a gallon used to 
come in boldly under the protection of law. Wine, being here 
esteemed a necessity, is allowed in moderation ; no inmate to have 
more than one bottle per day, either of ten-sous or twenty-sous 
wine, according to his taste or means — no better and no more. 

I don't defend the consistency of these regulations ; we do some 
things better in America than even in Clichy ; but here drunken- 
ness is absolutely prevented, and riotous living suppressed by a 
sumptuary law far more stringent than any of our States ever 
tried. And, mind you, this is no criminal prison ; but simply a 
house of detention for those who happen to have less money than 
others would like to extract from their pockets, many of whom do 
not pay, simply because they do not owe. So, if any one tells you 
again that Liquor Prohibition is a Yankee novelty, just ask him 
what he knows of Clichy. 

I know that cookery is a point of honor with the French, and 
rightly, for they approach it with the inspiration of genius. 

Sad am I to say that I find no proof of this eminence in Clichy, 
and am forced to the conclusion that to be in debt and unable to 
pay, does not qualify even a Frenchman in the culinary art. My 
auxiliary doubtless does his best, but his resources are limited, 
and fifty fellows dancing round one range, with only a few pots 
and kettles among them, probably confuses him. 

Even one dinner to-day (four of us — two Yankees, an English 
merchant, and an Italian banker — dined en famille in No 98,) on 
what we ordered from an out-door restaurant, (such are the preju- 
dices of education and habit,) and paid fifty sous each for, did not 
seem to be the thing. The gathering of knives, forks, spoons, 
bottles, etc., from Nos. 82, 63 and 139, to set the common table, 
was the freshest feature of the spread. 



HORACE GREELEY 123 

The sitting was nevertheless a pleasant one, and an Englishman 
joined us after the cloth was (figuratively) removed, who was 
much the cleverest man of the party. This man's case is so in- 
structive that I must make room for it. He has heen everywhere, 
and knows everything ; hut is especially strong in chemistry and 
matallurgy. A few weeks ago he was a coke-burner at Rouen, 
doing an immense and profitable business, till a heavy debtor 
failed, which frightened his partner into running off" with all the 
cash of the concern, and my friend was compelled to stop payment. 
He called together the creditors, eighty in number, (their banker 
alone was in for forty-five thousand francs,) and said : "Here is 
my case ; appoint your own receiver, conduct the business wisely, 
and all will be paid." 

Every man at once assented, and the concern was at once put in 
train of liquidation. But a discharged employee of the concern, at 
this moment owing to fifteen thousand francs now in judgment, 
said : " Here is my chance for revenge ;" so he had my friend ar- 
rested and put here as a foreign debtor, though he has been for 
years in most extensive business in France, and was, up to the date 
of his bankruptcy, paying the government fifteen hundred francs 
for annual license for the privilege of employing several hundred 
Frenchmen in transforming valueless peat into coke. He will get 
out by and by, and may prosecute his persecutor ; but the latter is 
utterly irresponsible ; and meantime a most extensive business is 
being wound up at Rouen, by a receiver, with the only man quali- 
fied to oversee and direct the affair in close jail at Paris. This is 
but one case among many such. I always hated and condemned 
imprisonment for debt untainted by fraud— above all, for suspicion 
of debt — but I never so well knew why I hated it as now. 

There are other cases and classes vei-y different from this — gay 
lads, who are working out debts which they never would have 
paid otherwise; for here in Clichy every man actually adjudged 
guilty of indebtedness, is sentenced to stay a certain term, in the 
discretion of the court, never more than ten years. The creditors 
of some would like to coax them out to-morrow ; but they are not 
so soft as to go until the debt is worked out, so far, that is, that 
they can never again be imprisoned for it. The first question asked 
of a new-comer is, " Have you ever been here before ?" and if he 
answers " Yes," the books are consulted ; and if this debt was 
charged against him, then he is remorselessly turned into the street. 
No price would procure such a man a night's lodging in Clichy. 
Some are here who say their lives were so tormented by duns and 
writs, that they had a friendly creditor put them here for safety 



124: LIFE AND CAREER OF 

from annoyance. And some of our humbler brethren, I am as- 
sured, having been once here, and earned four or five francs a day 
as auxiliaries, with cheap lodgings and a chance to forge off the 
plates of those they serve, actually get themselves put in because 
they can do so well nowhere else. A few days since, an auxiliary, 
who had aided and trusted a hard-up Englishman forty-eight francs 
on honor, (all debts contracted here are debts of honor purely, and 
therefore are always paid,) received a present of five hundred 
francs from the grateful obligee, Avhen, a few days after, he received 
ample funds from his distant resources, paid everything, and went 
out with flying colors. 

To return to my own matters ; I have been all day convincing 
one party of friends after another as they called, that I do not yet 
need their generously proffered money or names — that I will put 
up no security, and take no step whatever, until I can consult a 
good French lawyer, see where I stand, and get a judicial hearing 
if possible. I know the Judge did not mean nor expect that I 
should be sent here, when I left his presence last evening ; I want 
to be brought before him forthwith on a plea of urgency, which can- 
not so well be made if I am at liberty. If he says that I am prop- 
erly held in duress, then bailing out will do little good; for forty 
others all about me either have or think they have claims against 
the Crystal Palace for the damage or non-return of articles exhib- 
ited ; if I am personally liable to these, all France becomes a prison 
to me. When I have proper legal advice, I shall know what to do ; 
until then, it is safest to do nothing. Even at the worst, I hate to 
have any one put up 12,000 francs for me as several are willing to 
do, until I am sure there is no alternation. I have seen so much 
mischief from going security, that I dread to ask it when I can 
possibly do without. 

"Help one another " is a good rule, but abominably abused. A 
man in trouble is too apt to fly at once to his friends ; hence, half 
a dozen get in where there need have been but one. There is no 
greater device for multiplying misery, than misused sympathy. 
Better first see if you cannot shoulder your own pack. 

OUT OF CLICHY. 

Monday eve, June 4, 1855. 
Things have worked to-day very much as I had hoped and cal- 
culated. Friends had been active in quest of such lawyers as I 
needed, and two of the right sort were with me at a seasonable 
hour this morning. At three o'clock they had a hearing before the 



HORACE GREELEY. 125 

judge, and we were all ready for it, thanks to friends inside of the 
gratings as well as out. Judge Piatt's official certificate, as to the 
laws of our State governing the liability of corporators, has been 
of vital service to me ; and when my lawyers asked, " Where is 
your evidence that the effects of the New York Association are now 
in the hands of a receiver ?" I answered: "The gentleman who 
was talking with me in the visitors' room when you came in and 
took me away, knows that perfectly ; perhaps he is still there." I 
was at once sent for him, and found him there. Thus all things 
conspired for good ; and at four o'clock my lawyers and friends 
came to Clichy to bid me walk out, without troubling my friends 
for any security or deposit whatever. So I guess my last chance 
of ever learning French is gone by the board. 

Possibly, I have given too much prominence to the brighter side 
of life in Clichy, for that seemed most to need a discoverer ; let me 
put a little shading into the picture at the finish. 

There is a fair barber's shop in one cell in Clichy which was yes- 
terday in full operation ; so, expecting to be called in personally 
before the Judge, and knowing that I must meet many friends, I 
walked down stairs to be shaved, and was taken rather aback by 
the information that the barber had been set at liberty last evening, 
and there was not a man left in this whole concourse of practical 
ability to take his place. So there are imperfections in the social 
machinery even in Clichy. 

Fourier was right ; it will take 1.728 persons (the cube of 12,) to 
form a perfect Social Phalanx ; hence, all attempts to do it with 
two hundred or less fail, and must fail. 

"We had about 144 in Clichy this morning — men of more than 
average capacity ; still there are hitches, as we have seen. I think 
I have learned more there than in any two previous days of my 
life ; I never was busier ; and yet I should feel that all over a week 
spent there would be a waste of time. 

Let me close by stating that arrangements were made at once 
for the liberation of the only American I found or left there ; the 
first, I believe, who had been seen inside of the middle grating for 
months. 

For this he will be mainly indebted to the generosity of Messrs. 
Green & Co., bankers, but others are willing to co-operate. I fear 
he might have stayed some time, had not my position brought him 
into contact with men whom his pride would not permit him to 
apply to, yet who will not let him stay here. I am well assured 
that he comes out to-night. 



126 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

It was at first supposed that the arrest of Mr. Greeley origi- 
nated from some political motive, and the event created a general 
excitement among the Americans in Paris, and there were offers 
on all sides, of money and assistance to effect his release. The 
affair, however, terminated satisfactorily and without a great deal 
of personal inconvenience. Mr. Greeley obtained a novel inter- 
esting experience in Parisian life. A rather tedious suit followed 
his release, but was finally brought to an end in Mr. Greeley's 
favor, and through the aid of the Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, of 
Illinois, who was in Paris at the time, and documentary evidence 
obtained from New York. After leaving Paris Mr. Greeley 
visited Switzerland, and finally returned to London, where he 
spent some weeks and then embarked at Liverpool for home, 
which he reached in safety after an absence of about three 
months. During this European tour, as on his first, Mr. Gree- 
ley wrote letters constantly to his paper, full of interesting ob- 
servation and graphic description. 

AT WASHINGTON. 

The agitation of the slavery question, for many years before the 
time of which we are now writing, had been gradually deepening 
in earnestness and intensity, and as we before indicated the Tri- 
bune, wielded by the powerful intellect of Horace Greeley, was 
in the van of the opposition to the system. Already an embit- 
tered feeling existed between the two political parties represent- 
ing each side of the great controversy, and in the debates in Con- 
gress on the subject, and elsewhere, there were unmistakable indi- 
cations of the irreconcilable differences of opinion, which in after 
years had a dreadful climax in war and bloodshed. During the 
administrations of Pierce and Buchanan, the crisis drew on, and 
mainly owing to this state of affairs Mr. Greeley spent much of 
his time in Washington, an attentive observer of the proceedings 
of Congress, and an active and pungent writer for the Tribune. 
During the contest for the speakership, which resulted in the elec- 
tion of the Hon. N. P. Banks, he made some severe strictures on 
a resolution introduced by Albert Rust, member of Congress from 



HORACE GREELEY. 127 

Arkansas, and intended to induce Mr. Banks to withdraw, and 
which were published in the Tribune of January 26th, 1856. 
The result was a violent personal attack on Mr. Greeley by 
Win. Rust in the precincts of the capitol, which created an in- 
tense excitement at the time. Rust first accosted Mr. Greeley 
as he was coming from the House, after adjournment. 

Is your name Greeley ? 

Yes! 

Are you a non-combatant ? 

That is according to circumstances ! 

Thereupon the questioner struck him a violent blow on the 
head, and followed it rapidly with two or three more before Mr. 
Greeley could draw his hands from his pockets, for he had not 
changed his position when the stranger approached, not having 
an idea of violence. He was staggered by the blows, and before 
any further collision between the parties, several friends inter- 
fered and separated them. Mr. Greeley walked on towards the 
National Hotel, and getting into a crowd of strangers, Rust 
again approached him and struck him several times with a cane ; 
but as Mr. Greeley was endeavoring to close with him, several 
persons rushed between, and they were separated. In giving an 
account of the cowardly attack, Mi\ Greeley said, "I presume 
this is not the last outrage to which I am to be subjected. I 
came here with a clear understanding that it was about whether I 
should or should not be allowed to go home alive ; for my busi- 
ness here is to unmask hypocrisy, defeat treachery and rebuke 
meanness, and these are not dainty employments even in smoother 
times than ours. * * * I shall carry no weapons, 
and engage in no brawls, but if ruffians waylay and assail me, I 
shall certainly not run, and so far as able I shall defend myself." 
He was not seriously injured by the attack, but the indignant 
sympathy of the people was none the less awakened in his behalf, 
and the press generally denounced the conduct of Rust in the 
strongest terms. Mr. Greeley refused even to prosecute his 
ruffianly assailant for excellent reasons, which appeared in the 
Tribune. 



128 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

As further illustrating the feeling in some Southern States at 
this time against the Tribune and its editor, we may mention 
that in September, 1856, W. P. Hall, living at Shinnston, Va., 
was indicted for getting up a club for the Tribune. Also Ira 
Hart, of Clarksburg, Va., and finally the same Grand Jury 
wound up by formally presenting Horace Greeley of New York 
as the editor and promulgator. 

ACE OSS THE CONTINENT. 

On 9th May, 1859, Horace Greeley left New York on his 
memorable trip across the Plains to California. At that time the 
various features in such a journey were not as familiar to the 
public generally as they are now, and his interesting descriptive 
letters to the Tribune had a very wide circulation. 

The following extracts from them are sufficient to furnish a 
comprehensive sketch of! this Western tour of the abolition docu- 
ment, the Tribune calculated " to advise and incite negroes in 
this State to rebel and make insurrection." Notwithstanding all 
this, however, the Tribune continued to oppose the schemes of 
the Southern slaveholders, although in discussing questions con- 
nected with slavery, its tone was moderate but determined. A 
glance at the numerous letters, articles, and other writings of the 
editor of the Tribune about this time, shows the immense work 
he performed in the interests of human freedom, and against 
slavery in the South : 

OUTSKIRTS OF CIVILIZATION. 

I believe I have now descended the ladder of artificial life nearly 
to its lowest round. If the Cheyeunes — thirty of whom stopped 
the last express down on the route we must traverse, and tried to 
beg or steal from it — should see fit to capture and strip us, we 
should of course have further experience in the same line ; but for 
the present, the progress I have made during the last fortnight 
toward the primitive simplicity of human existence, maybe roughly 
noted thus : 

May 12th, Chicago. — Chocolate and morning newspapers last 
seen at the breakfast-table. 



HORACE GREELEY. 129 

23d, Leavenworth.— Eoom-bells and baths make their last 
appearance. 

24th, Topeka. — Beefsteak and washbowls (other than tin,) last 
visible. Barber ditto. 

26th, Manhattan. — Potatoes and eggs last recognized among 
the blessings that "brighten as they take their flight." Chairs 
ditto. 

27th, Junction City. — Last visitation of a bootblack, with dis- 
solving views of a board bedroom. Chairs bid us good-bye. 

28th, Pipe Creek. — Benches for seats at meals have disappeared, 
giving place to bags and boxes. 

We (two passengers of a scribbling turn,) write our letters in the 
express wagon that has borne us by day, and must supply us lodg- 
ings for the night. 

Thunder and lightning, from both south and west, give strong 
promise of a shower before morning. 

Dubious looks at several holes in the canvas-covering of the 
wagon. 

Our trust is in buoyant hearts and an India rubber blanket. 

THE BUFFALO. 

All day yesterday they darkened the earth around us, often 
seeming to be drawn up like an army in battle array, on the ridges 
and adown their slopes a mile or so south of us — often on the north 
as well. 

They are rather shy of the little screens of straggling timber on 
the creek bottoms — doubtless from their sore experience of Indi- 
ans lurking therein, to discharge arrows at them as they went down 
to drink. 

If they feed in the grass of the narrow valleys and ravines, they 
are careful to have a part of the herd on the ridges which overlook 
them, and with them the surrounding country for miles ; and when 
an alarm is given, they all rush furiously off in the direction which 
the leaders presume that of safety. 

This is what gives us such excellent opportunities for regarding 
them to the best advantage. They are moving northward, and are 
still mainly south of our track. 

Whenever alarmed, they set off on their awkward but effective 
canter to the great herds still south, or to haunts with which they 
are comparatively familiar, and wherein they have hitherto found 
safety. 

Of course, this sends those north of us across our way, often but 
9 



130 LITE AND CAREER OF 

a few rods in front of us, even when they had started a mile away. 
Then a herd will commence running across a hundred rods ahead, 
of us, and, the whole blindly following their leadei - , we will be 
close upon them before the last will have cleared the track. 

Of course, they sometimes stop and tack, or seeing us, sheer off 
and cross farther ahead, or split into two lines ; but the general 
impulse, when alarmed, is to follow blindly and at full speed, seem- 
ing not to inquire or consider from what quarter danger is to be 
apprehended. 

"What strikes the stranger with most amazement, is their im- 
mense numbers. I know a million is a great many, but. I am con- 
fident we saw that number yesterday. Certainly, all we saw could 
not have stood on ten square miles of ground. Often the country 
for miles on either hand seemed quite black with them. 

The soil is rich, and well matted with their favorite grass. Yet 
it is all (except a very little, on the creek bottoms, near to timber,) 
eaten down like an overtaxed sheep-pasture in a dry August. 

Consider that we have traversed more than one hundred miles 
in width since we first struck them, and that for most of this dis- 
tance the buffalo have been constantly in sight, and that they con- 
tinue for some twenty-five miles farther on — this being the breadth 
of their present range, which has a length of perhaps a thousand 
miles, and you have some approach to an idea of their countless 
millions. 

I doubt whether the domesticated horned cattle of the United 
States equal the numbers, while they must fall considerably short 
in weight, of these wild ones. 

Margaret Fuller long ago observed that the Illinois prairies 
seemed to repel the idea of being new to civilized life and indus- 
try ; that the}', with their borders of trees and belts of timber, re- 
minded the traveler rather of the parks and spacious fields of an 
old country like England ; that you were constantly on the invol- 
untary lookout for the chateaux, or at least the humbler farm- 
houses, which should diversify such a scene. 

True as this is or was in Illinois, the resemblance is far more 
striking here ; where the grass is all so closely pastured, and the 
cattle are seen in such vast herds on every ridge. 

The timber, too, aids the resemblance ; seeming to have been 
reduced to the last degree consistent with the wants of a growing 
country, and to have been left only on the steep creek banks where 
grass would not grow. It is hard to realize that this is the centre 
of a region of wilderness and solitude, so far as the labors of civil- 



HORACE GREELEY. 131 

ized men are concerned — that the first wagon passed through it 
some two months ago. 

But the utter absence of houses or buildings of any kind, and our 
unabridged, unworked road, winding on its way for hundreds of 
miles, without a track other than of buffalo intersecting or leading 
away from it on either hand, brings us back to the reality. 

I shall pass lightly over the hunting exploits of our party. A 
good many shots have been fired — of course not by me ; even were 
I in the habit of making war on wild nature's children, I would as 
soon think of shooting my neighbor's oxen as those great clumsy, 
harmless creatures. If they were scarce, I might comprehend the 
idea of hunting them for sport ; here, they are so abundant that 
you might as well hunt your neighbor's geese. 

And, while there have been several shots fired by our party at 
point-blank distance, I have reason for my hope that no buffalo has 
experienced any personal inconvenience therefrom. 

MISHAP IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

Two evenings since, just as we were nearing Station 17, where 
we were to stop for the night, my fellow passenger and I had a 
jocular discussion on the gullies into which we were so frequently 
plunged, to our personal discomfort. 

He premised that it was a consolation that the sides of these gul- 
lies could not be worse than perpendicular ; to which I replied 
with the assertion that they could be and were ; for instance, 
where a gully, in addition to its perpendicular descent, had an in- 
clination of forty-five degrees or so to one side the track. 

Just then a violent lurch of the wagon to one side, then to the 
other, in descending one of these jolts, enforced my position. 
Two minutes later, as we were about to descend the steep bank of 
the creek intervale, the mules acting perversely, my friend stepped 
out to take them by the head, leaving me alone in the wagon. 

Just then we began to descend the steep pitch, the driver pull- 
ing up with all his might, when the left rein of the leaders 
broke, and the teem was in a moment sheered out of the road and 
ran diagonally down the pitch. In a second the wagon went over, 
hitting the ground a most spiteful blow. I, of course, went over 
with it ; and when I rose to my feet, as soon as possible, consid- 
erably bewildered aud disheveled, the mules had been disengaged 
by the upset, and were making good time across the prairie, while 
the driver, considerably hurt, was getting out from under the car- 
riage to limp after them. 



132 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

I had a slight cut on my left cheek, and a worse one below the 
left knee, with a pretty smart concussion generally but not a 
bone started nor a tendon strained, and I walked away to the sta- 
tion as firmly as ever, leaving the superintendent and my fellow- 
passenger to pick up the pieces, and guard the baggage from the 
Indians, who instantly swarmed about the wreck. 

I am sore yet, and a little lame, but three or four day's rest — if I 
can get it — will make all right. 

CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS ON THE PLAINS. 

Of the seventeen bags on which I have ridden for the last four 
days, at least sixteen are filled with large bound books, mainly 
Patent Office Reports, I judge, but all of them undoubtedly works 
ordered printed at the public cost — your cost, reader !— by Congress, 
and now on the way to certain favored Mormons, franked, (by 
proxy) " Pub. Doc. Free J. M. Bernhisel, M. C." I do not blame 
Mr. B. for clutching his share of this public plunder, and distribut- 
ing it so as to increase his own popularity and importance ; but I do 
protest against this business of printing books by wholesale at the 
cost of the whole people, for free distribution to a part only. It is 
every way wrong and pernicious. 

Of the $190,000 per annum paid for carrying the Salt Lake mail, 
nine-tenths is absorbed in the cost of carrying these franked docu- 
ments to people who contribute little or nothing to the support of 
the government in any way. 

Is this fair? Each Patent Office Report will have cost the 
Treasury four or five dollars by the tiiue it reaches its destination, 
and will not be valued by the receiver at twenty-five cents. 

Why should this business go on? Why not " reform it alto- 
gether ? " Let Congress print whatever documents are needed for 
its own information, and leave the people to choose and buy for 
themselves ? 

I have spent four days and five nights in close contact with the 
sharp edges of Mr. Bernhisel's "Pub. Doc. ;" have done my very 
utmost to make them present a smooth, or at least endurable sur- 
face ; and I am sure there is no slumber to be extracted therefrom 
unless by reading them — a desperate resort, which no rational per- 
son would recommend. 

For all practical purposes they might as well — now that the 
printer has been paid for them — be where I heartily wish they 
were — in the bottom of the sea. 



HORACE GREELEY. 133 

INTERVIEW WITH THE MORMON PROPHET. 

My friend, Dr. Bernhisel, M. C., took me this afternoon, by ap- 
pointment, to meet Brigham Young', President of the Mormon 
Church, who had expressed a willingness to receive me at 2 p. m. 

We were very cordially welcomed at the door by the President, 
who led us into the second-story parlor of the largest of nis houses 
(he has three,) where I was introduced to Heber C. Kimball, Gen- 
eral Wells, General Furguson, Albert Carriugton, Elias Smith, and 
several other leading men in the Church, with two full-grown sons 
of the President. 

After some un-important conversation on general topics, I stated 
that I had come in quest of fuller knowledge respecting the doc- 
trines and policy of the Mormon Church, and would like to ask 
some questions bearing directly on these, if there were no objec- 
tions. 

President Young avowing his willingness to respond to all per 
tinent inquiries, the conversation proceeded substantially as fol 
lows : 

H. G. — Am I to regard Mormonism (so called) as a new religion, 
or as simply a new development of Christianity ? 

B. Y. — We hold that there can be no true Christian Church with- 
out a priesthood directly commissioned by and in immediate com- 
munication with the Son of Gocl and Savior of mankind. Such a 
church is that of the Latter-Day Saints, called by their enemies 
Mormons ; we know no other that even pretends to have present 
and direct revelations of God's will. 

H. G. — Then I am to understand that you regard all other 
churches professing to be Christian, as the Church of Rome regards 
all churches not in communion with itself — as schismatic, heretical, 
and out of the way of salvation ? 

B. Y. — Yes ; substantially. 

H. G. — Apart from this ; in what respect do your doctrines differ 
essentially from those of our orthodox Protestant Churches — the 
Baptist or Methodist, for example ? 

B. Y. — We hold the doctrines of Christianity, as revealed in the 
Old and New Testaments, also in the Book of Mormon, which 
teaches the same cardinal truths, and those only. 

H. G.— Do you believe in the doctrine, of the Trinity 

B. Y. — We do ; but not exactly as it is held by other churches. 
We believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, as equal, but 
not identical — nor as one person [being]. We believe in all the 
Bible teaches on this subject. 



134 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

H. G. — Do you believe in a personal Devil, a distinct, conscious, 
spiritual being, whose nature and acts are essentially malignant 
and evil ? 

B. Y.-We do. 

H. G. — Do you hold the doctrine of eternal punishment? 

B. Y.— We do ; though perhaps not exactly as other churches 
do. We believe it as the Bible teaches it. 

H. G. — I understand that you regard baptism by immersion as 
essential. 

B. Y.-We do. 

H. G. — Do you practice infant baptism ? 

B. Y.— No. 

H. G. — Do you make removal to these valleys obligatory on your 
converts ? 

B. Y. — They would consider themselves greatly aggrieved if they 
were not invited hither. We hold to such a gathering together of 
God's people as the Bible fortells ; and that this is the place, and 
now is the time appointed for its consummation. 

H. G. — The predictions to which you refer have usually, I 
think, been understood to indicate Jerusalem (or Judea) as the 
place of such gathering. 

B. Y. — Yes, for the Jews ; not for others. 

H. G. — What is the position of your Church with respect to 
slavery ? 

B. Y. — We consider it of Divine institution, and not to be abol- 
ished until the curse pronounced on Ham shall have been removed 
from his descendants. 

II. G. — Are any slaves now held in this Territory ? 

B. Y.— There are. 

H. G. — Do your Territorial laws uphold slavery? " 

B. Y. — Those laws are printed, you can read for yourself. If 
slaves are brought here by those who owned them in the States, 
we do not favor their escape from the service of those owners. 

H. G. — -Am 1 to infer that Utah, if admitted as a member of the 
Federal Union, will be a slave State ? 

B. Y. — No ; she will be a free State. 

Slavery here would prove useless and unprofitable. I regard it 
generally as a curse to the masters. I mvself hire manv laborers 

B « » 

and pay them fair wages; I could not afford to own them. I can 
do better than subject myself to an obligation to feed and clothe 
their families, to provide and care for them in sickness and health. 
Utah is not adapted to slave labor. 



HORACE GREELEY. 135 

H. G. — Let me now be enlightened with regard more especially 
to your church polity. 

I understand that you require each member to pay oyer one- 
tenth of all the produces or earns to the church. 

B. Y. — That is a requirement of our faith. 

There is no compulsion as to the payment. Each member acts 
in the premises according to his pleasure, under the dictates of 
his own conscience. 

H. G. — What is done with the proceeds of this tithing ? 

B. Y. — Part of it is devoted to building temples and other 
places of worship ; part to helping the poor and needy converts on 
their way to this country ; and the largest portion to the sup- 
port of the poor among the Saints. 

H. G. — Is none of it paid to bishops aud other dignitaries of the 
church ? 

B. Y. — Not one penny. No bishop, no elder, no deacon, or other 
church officer, receives any compensation for his official services. 
A bishop is often required to put his hand in his own pocket, and 
provide therefrom for the poor of his charge ; but he never re- 
ceives anything for his services. 

H. G. — How, then, do your ministers live ? 

B. Y. — By the labor of their own hands, like the first apostles. 

Every bishop, every elder, may be daily seen at work in the 
field or the shop, like his neighbors ; every minister of the church 
has his proper calling by which he earns the bread of his family ; 
he who cannot or will not do the church's work for nothing is not 
wanted in her service; even our lawyers (pointing to General Fer- 
guson aud another present, who are the regular lawyers of the 
church) are paid nothing for their services ; I am the only person 
in the church who has not a regular calling apart from the 
church's service, and I never received one farthing from her treas- 
ury ; if I obtain anything from the tithing-house, I am charged 
with and pay for it, just as any one else would ; the clerks in the 
tithing-store are paid like other clerks, but no one is ever paid for 
any service pertaining to the ministry. 

We think a man who cannot make his living aside from the min- 
istry of Christ unsuited to that office. 

I am called rich, and consider myself worth $250,000 ; but no 
dollar of it was ever paid me by the church, or for any service as 
a minister of the everlasting gospel. 

I lost nearly all I had when we were broken up in Missouri, and 
driven from that State. I was nearly stripped again when Joseph 
Smith was murdered, and we were driven from Illinois ; but noth- 



136 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

ing was ever made up to me by the church, nor by any one. 1 be- 
lieve I know how to acquire property, and how to take care of it. 

H. G. — Can you give me any rational explanation of the aversion 
and hatred with which your people are generally regarded by 
those among whom they have lived, and with whom they hare 
been brought directly in contact? 

B. Y. — No other explanation than is afforded by the crucifixion 
of Christ and the kindred treatment of God's ministers, prophets, 
and saints in all ages. 

H. G. — I know that a new sect is always descried and traduced ; 
that it is hardly ever deemed respectable to belong to one ; that 
the Baptists, Quakers, Methodists, Universalists, &c, have each 
in their turn been regarded in the infancy of their sect as the off- 
scouring of the earth ; yet I cannot remember that either of them 
were ever generally represented and regarded by the older sects of 
their early days as thieves, robbers, murderers. 

B. Y. — If you will consult the contemporary Jewish accounts of 
the life and acts of Jesus Christ, you will find that he and his dis- 
ciples were accused of every abominable deed and purpose — rob- 
bery and murder included. Such a work is still extant, and may 
be found by those who seek it. 

H. G. — What do you say of the so-called Danites, or Destroying 
Angels, belonging to your Church ? 

B. Y. — What do you say ? I know of no such band, no such per- 
sons or organization. I hear of them only in the slanders of our 
enemies. 

H. G. — With regard, then, to the grave question on which your 
doctrines and practices are avowedly at war with those of the 
Christian world— that of a plurality of wives — is the system of 
your Church acceptable to the majority of its women ? 

B. Y. — They could not be more averse to it than I was when it 
was first revealed to me as the Divine will. I think they generally 
accept it, as I do, as the will of God. 

H. G. — How general is polygamy among you .' 

B. Y. — I could not say. Some of these present (heads of the 
Church,) have each but one wife ; others have more ; each deter- 
mines what is his individual duty. 

H. G. — What is the largest number of wives belonging to any 
one man ? 

B. Y. — I have fifteen ; I know no one who has more ; but some 
of those sealed to me are old ladies, whom I regard rather as moth- 
ers than wives, but whom I have taken home to cherish and sup- 
port. 



HORACE GREELEY. "^ 13T 

H. G. — Does not the Apostle Paul say that a bishop should he 
" the husband of one wife ?" 

B. Y. — So we hold. We do not regard any but a married man 
as fitted for the office of bishop. Bat the apostle does not forbid a 
bishop having more wives than one. 

II. G. — Does not Christ say that he who puts away his wife, or 
marries one whom another has put away, commits adultery ? 

B. Y. — Yes ; and I hold that no man should ever put away a wife 
except for adultery — not always even for that. 

Such is my individual view of the matter. I do not always say 
that wives have never been put away in our Church, but that I do 
not approve of the practice. 

H. G. — How do you regard what is commonly termed the Chris- 
tian Sabbath ? 

B. Y. — As a divinely appointed day of rest. 

"We enjoin all to rest from secular labor on that day. We would 
have no man enslaved to the Sabbath, but we enjoin all to respect 
and enjoy it. 

HIS OPINION OF POLYGAMY. 

I have enjoyed opportunities for visiting Mormons, and studying 
Mormonism in the homes of its votaries, and of discussing with 
them what the outside world regards as its distinguished feature, 
in the freedom of friendly, social intercourse. 

In one instance, a veteran apostle of the faith, having first intro- 
duced to me a worthy matron of fifty-five or sixty — the wife of his 
youth, and the mother of his grown-up sons — as Mrs. T., soon after 
introduced a young and winning lady, of perhaps twenty-five 
summers, in these words : " Here is another Mrs. T." 

This lady is a recent emigrant from our State, of more than aver- 
age powers of mind and graces of person, who came here with her 
brother, as a convert, a little over a year ago, and has been the 
sixth wife of Mr. T. since a few weeks after her arrival. 

(The intermediate four wives of Elder T. live on a farm or farms 
some miles distant.) The manner of the husband was perfectly 
unconstrained and off-hand, throughout; but I could not well be 
mistaken in my convictions that both ladies failed to conceal dis- 
satisfaction with their position in the eyes of their visitor and of 
the world. 

They seemed to feel that it needed vindication. Their manner 
toward each other was most cordial and sisterly — sincerely so, I 
doubt not — but this is by no means the rule. 



138 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

A Gentile friend, whose duties require him to travel widely over 
the Territory, informs me that he has repeatedly stopped with a 
Bishop, some hundred miles south of this, whose two wives he has 
never known to address each other, or evince the slightest cordi- 
ality during the hours he has spent in their society. 

The Bishop's house consists of two rooms ; and when my infor- 
mant stayed there with a Gentile friend, the Bishop being absent, 
one wife slept in the same apartment with them, rather than in 
that, occupied by her double. I presume that an extreme case ; 
but the spirit which impels it is not unusual. 

I met this evening a large party of young people, consisting in 
nearly equal numbers of husbands and wives ; but no husband was 
attended by more than one wife, and no gentleman admitted or 
implied, in our repeated and animated discussions of polygamy, 
that he had more than one wife. 

And I was again struck by the circumstance that here, as hereto- 
fore, no woman indicated by word or look her approval of any 
argument in favor of polygamy. 

That many women acquiesce in it as an ordinance of God, and 
have been drilled into a mechanical assent to the logic by which 
it is upheld, I believe ; but that there is not a woman in Utah who 
does not in her heart wish that God had not ordained it, I am con- 
fident. 

And quite a number of the young men ti'eat it as a temporary or 
experimental arrangement, which is to be sustained or put aside 
as experience shall demonstrate its utility or mischief. One old 
Mormon farmer, with whom I discussed the matter privately, ad- 
mitted that it was impossible for a poor working-man to have a 
well-ordered, well-governed household, where his children had 
two or more livingmothers occupying the same ordinary dwelling. 

On the whole, I conclude that polygamy, as it was a graft on the 
original stock of Mormonism, will be outlived by the root; that 
there will be a new revelation 'ere many years, whereby the Saints 
will be admonished to love and cherish the wives they already 
have, but not to marry any more beyond the natural assignment 
of one wife to each husband. 

I regret that I have found time and opportunity to visit but one 
of the nineteen common schools of this city. This was thinly at- 
tended by children nearly all quite young, and of the most rudimen- 
tary attainments. Their phrenological development was, in the 
average, bad ; I say this with freedom, since I have stated that 
those of the adults, as I noted them in the Tabernacle, were good. 



HORACE GREELEY. 139 

But I am told that idiotic or malformed children are very rare, if 
not unknown here. 

The male Saints emphasize the fact that a majority of the chil- 
dren born here are girls, holding- it a proof that Providence smiles 
on their "pecnliar'institution ; " I, on the contrary, maintain that 
such is the case in all polygamous countries, and proves simply a 
preponderance of vigor on the part of the mothers over that of the 
fathers, wherever this result is noted. I presume that a majority 
of the children of old husbands by young wives in any community 
are girls. 

RECEPTION AT SACRAMENTO. 

On Sunday the Committee of Arrangements held an informal 
meeting, and the Committee of Reception detailed to meet him at 
Folsom, were put in telegraphic communications with the master 
of ceremonies at Placerville ; the result of which was an agree- 
ment, on the part of friends of the distinguished stranger in the 
latter city, to deliver him on Monday afternoon, in good order, and 
sound condition, by private conveyance, to such of his friends in 
Sacramento as should be in waiting at Folsom. 

J. P. Robinson, Superintendent of the Sacramento Valley Rail- 
road, placed a special train at the service of the Committee, with 
the freedom of the road to all they should invite to accompany 
them. 

Horace Greeeey passed the night, or such portion of it as he 
was allowed to have for himself, at the Cary House, and left Pla- 
cerville at 11.20 A. m., in company with G. W. Swan of that city, 
in an open-front, two-horse carriage. At Mud Springs, about one 
hundred and fifty of the town's people and miners had assembled 
to greet him, under a banner stretched across the street. Gree- 
ley did not, however, leave his seat ; but exchanged salutations 
with the citizens at the door of the carriage. 

On the way down the mountains, Mr. Swan's lively and obser- 
vant companion noticed with frequent exclamations of wonder the 
enterprise and labor evinced in mining operations, and the miners 
apparatus for conveying water ; spoke of the barrenness of the hill- 
sides, but thought it strange that the fertile spots in the valleys 
should be left unoccupied by tillers of the soil after the miners had 
denuded the hillsides of gold; expressed great surprise, as all new- 
comers do, at the fine appearance of our cattle, contrasted with the 
apparent lean and dry pasturage ; thought the fruit in the gardens 
by the roadsides looked astonishingly thrifty ; and after some 
further observations of the same character, and partaking with a 
good appetite of the dinner served for him and his companion at 



140 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

Paducah, the head of the great American press sank quietly back 
in one corner of the carriage, and was prone to indulge in suchun- 
refreshing slumber as a warm day over a dusty and tiresome road 
can alone inspire. 

While the editor of the New York Tribune slept, his friends 
were wide awake in the " City of the Plains." 

At 2.30 p. m. the Reception Committee, and about twenty-five or 
thirty others whom they had invited, stepped into a special car, 
and, under the convoy of Superintendent Robinson, were soon fly- 
ing on their road to Folsom. 

The Committee reached Folsom in forty minutes by the superin- 
tendent's watch, and learned on arriving, that the "man with the 
white coat" had not yet made his appearance. 

The receptionists strolled about the interesting town of Folsom, 
and, their hospitable ardor communicated to sundry of the inhabi- 
tants, the cannon was brought out, and soon a thundering report, 
which must have wakened Greeley a mile distant, if he had 
slept until that time, announced that the friends of the great ex- 
pected were ready to receive him with open arms. 

At a quarter to four, a carriage drawn by a pair of roan-colored 
ponies drove at a pretty smart pace down the main street, and 
straight up to the depot. 

By this time most of the Committee had wandered off in the 
vicinity of the bridge, so that when the proprietor of a little old 
glazed traveling-bag, marked " H. Greeley, 154 Nassau street, 
New York, 1855," a very rusty and well-worn white coat, a still 
rustier and still more worn and faded blue cotton umbrella, to- 
gether with a roll of blankets, were deposited from the carriage, 
there was no one present of the Committee to take him by the 
hand. 

The crowd about the depot, however, closed in so densely that 
Greeley was fain to make for the first open door that presented 
itself. This unfortunately happened to be the bar-room attached 
to the ticket-office ; and here some of the Committee found him, 
with his back turned defiantly against the sturdy rows of bottles 
and decanters, talking informally with some friends who had been 
beforehand ; and here the Committee seized their quest, and with 
considerable trepidation hurried him across to the hotel over the 
freight depot, followed by a large and increasing crowd. Gree- 
ley was escorted to an upper room, where J. McClatchy, on be- 
half of the Committee, found opportunity to welcome him in set 
phrase, in about the following language . 



HORACE GREELEY. 141 

"Mr. Greeley : This Committee, chosen by the citizens of Sac- 
ramento, without regard to party, have waited upon you to hid 
you welcome to the capital of the State. The people of our city 
have long looked upon you as one of the noblest friends of Cali- 
fornia. They desire to show their appreciation of your labors in 
its behalf by giving you a cordial welcome. Arrangements have 
been made in our city to receive you and make your stay agreea- 
ble, and we are ready, at your leisure to escort you to the friends 
that are waiting your coming. 

In their name, and in the name of this, their Committee, I wel- 
come you to our city." 

Mr. Greeley replied very nearly as follows : 

"I should have been glad if I could have had my choice, to have 
avoided a formal reception, because it looks like parade, and 
gives an idea of seeking for glory, which is not a part of my plan 
in coming to California. 

I shall be happy, however, to go with you, and to-night I would 
Jike to say something about the Pacific Railroad. 

I am at your service, gentlemen, this evening, but I've got my 
business affairs to attend to afterwards. 

I have not yet seen my letters ; they are waiting for me in your 
city. I have other places to visit, and wish to see all I can, and 
meet all the friends I can, here and elsewhere." 

These remarks were delivered in the peculiar off-hand manner 
of the great reformer, and in the high key, and slender and waver- 
ing tones which are characteristic of his public speaking. 

When he had finished, there was a little pause, as though each 
of the Committee was cogitating what next was to be done, when 
Greeley broke in with the bluntness so often ascribed to him, 
" Well, I'm ready to go when you are." 

O. C. Wheeler, Secretary of the State Agricultural Society, now 
extended an invitation to him to accompany the visiting Com- 
mittee on their rounds of visits among the farms and orchards of 
the State, setting out next week, which invitation Greeley 
thought he would accept, but must take it under consideration. 

After several persons had been introduced, Greeley was 
escorted back to the depot, followed by " all Folsom for four 
miles back," as one of the crowd declared. 

Near the ticket-office, having signified to the Committee that he 
would like to say something to the people, Mr. Mooney of the Fol- 
som Express enjoined silence, and Greeley said : 

"Fellow Citizens: I know very well that occasions like 
this are not such as a person should choose for the purpose of 



142 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

making a speech, and I do not wish to he regarded as having come 
among yon for speech-making. I have come to your fai'-off laud 
as an American comes to visit Americans. I don't have time to 
read books, and I want to learn what I can of the men and coun- 
try. I have come to see by practical observation. I want to see 
the land which, during the last ten years, has furnished gold 
enough to check, if it could not entirely overcome, the tide of 
reverse following the commercial extravagance of the East. 

One of the objects of my visit had been to see what it is practica- 
ble to accomplish for the Pacific Railroad. [Cheers.] 

I know that great difficulties and obstacles lie in the way, but 
I also know that every addition of wealth and population on this 
side lessens those difficulties — every one hundred thousand souls 
you receive into your State, increases, not the necessity, for that 
has all along existed, but the imminence of that necessity, so to 
speak. It is a work which must be done in our day, and, if we live 
the ordinary lives of men, we shall see it accomplished. Every 
wave of emigration to your shores will beat down an obstacle. 

I entreat you then, fellow-citizens, to go on and draw around 
you the means for this great fulfillment of the noble plan. Let us 
build up an American Republic, not as now, the two sides of a 
great desert, but let us make it a concentrated and harmonious 
whole. Those who come to join you here should not pursue the 
journey as now, wearily, sadly, and by slow degrees, over these 
great Plains. We must work with all our energies for the pros- 
perity of the Pacific Railroad. [Cheers.] 

I thank you for the manner in which you have welcomed me, 
and I shall return home to labor with increased vigor for the road, 
and for the success of the Union." 

This short speech was greeted with hearty applause by over one 
hundred and fifty persons, who had assembled to catch a sight of 
the flaxen locks and benevolent face of Horace Greeley. At 
its close he was conducted into the car, and the Committee and 
their guest were soon on their way to this city, at a rattling pace. 

The Committee of arrangements had prepared seven carriages 
to be in waiting at the depot, on the arrival of the car containing 
their guest. A telegraph dispatch announced the moment of his 
departure from Folsom. In less time than it had taken to go out, 
the whistle was heard announcing that the train was coming down 
the levee. 

As the car approached the city, the Committee, who had up to 
this time been acting without much concert or regularity, found a 
rare subject for a concurrence of speech, at least, in Greeley's 



HORACE GREELEY. 143 

old white coat, and umbrella. Some of the ragged parts of the 
coat were converted into little mementoes by the more enterpris- 
ing members of the Committee. 

It was about five o'clock when the train reached the depot. 
Greeley was handed into a carriage, accompanied by the Com- 
mittee, distributed through the other vehicles, and was driven to 
the St. George Hotel, where rooms have been in keeping for him 
several days. In the parlor of this hotel a large crowd soon began 
to gather, and H. L. Nichols, President of the Board of Supervis- 
ors, making his appearance, with other members of the general 
Committee, was introduced to their guest, by D. Muker. 

Dr. Nichols then made the following address : 

"Mr. Greeley: It is with pleasure, sir, that, on behalf of the 
citizens of Sacramento, I welcome you to our city. It is probable 
that but few of us have had the honor of your personal acquain- 
tance ; but, sir, you are not unknown to us. You are known to us 
as you are known to the world at large ; but more particularly 
are you known to us as the true friend of California, and as such 
we are ever proud to acknowledge you. 

We thank you that you have taken sufficient interest in our wel- 
fare to leave your home in the great metropolis of the East, and 
wend your way across the Plains and rugged mountains that sep- 
arate us, to visit us in our Western home. We trust that Avhile 
you travel through our State you may not be disappointed with 
the progress which our citizens have made during the short time 
allowed them. 

Perhaps you may be aware, sir, that the place which yon now 
behold as the city of Sacramento, was but little more than ten 
years ago a vast plain, with here and there a few cloth tents, which 
were occupied by the hardy pioneers of the State. 

We to-day, in size, claim to be the second city on the Pacific 
coast ; our inhabitants number not less than 15,000 ; we have a 
property valuation of nearly $10,000,000 ; we have erected com- 
fortable dwellings for our families, and houses for places of busi- 
ness ; reared numerous, and ample churches dedicated to the wor- 
ship of Almighty God, and established schools for the education 
of our children — in fact, we enjoy most of the blessings that our 
sister cities in the East may lay claim to. 

The hospitalities of this our city, I extend to you, and trust that 
during your sojourn here we may be enabled to make your stay 
pleasant and agreeable, so that when you return to your home in 
the East, and may have occasion to refer in memory to the few 



144 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

days spent with us, your feelings may be rather of pleasure than 
of regret. 

Now, sir, permit me again, in my own behalf of my fellow-citi- 
zens, to bid you a hearty and cordial welcome to the city of the 
Plains — the capital city of the Golden State." 

The address was followed by a round of applause, after which 
Mr. Greeley spoke as follows : 

Mr. Chairman : — It was observed by a great Southern states- 
man that the American Revolution was not that abnormal thing 
which we were disposed to think it. The Colony that stepped 
ashore on Plymouth Rock were no longer a Colony, but a State, 
from that hour. It is thus that American genius and American 
cultivation go before, and improvise the arts and a nation's polity. 
Ten years ago you were here familiar with hangings and mob law. 
I was in London, and I will remember the remark of a British 
nobleman, that your course was the proper working out of the old 
English law. 

Men must obey the voice of the community, which is the law, in 
all cases ; and, if they do not, they must suffer the penalty of their 
offending equally in orderly as well as in disorderly states of gov- 
ernment. 

The progress you have made in carrying out your principles of 
government successfully, is your highest triumph. Better than 
your gold or your thrift is the fact that here is a population, made 
up of New Englanders, men of the South, foreign-born, natives of 
China and almost every part of the globe, which gradually, through 
periods of disorder, you have reduced to the best forms of enlight- 
enment, crystallizing them, so to speak, in a perfect and durable 
shape. I do think this is better than gold, for that the savages can 
dig. 

Your schools, your churches, and your obedience to the laws, are 
your greatest wealth. And the secret of your success is, that labor 
here meets its just reward. California labor rejoices in that assur- 
ance. 

I heard them talk of the " want of capital " in California. I do 
not think capital is necessary. When people want labor, and can 
get it, it is better than capital. [Applause.] 

Your gold product gives assurance that the labor will always 
find this reward. At the same time, your gold gives an impulse 
to civilization, and I think it is safe to promise that your State 
will increase until it becomes the most populous in the Union. 
[Applause.] I came this long way not to see California alone. I 
wanted to see those interesting spaces where the most primitive 



HORACE GREELEY. 145 

forms of life can be viewed and contrasted -within the borders of 
our own Republic with the highest civilization. I wish to study 
men as I can see them in their cabins,, and to improve by observa- 
tion what 1 have been denied acquiring through books and the 
essays of wise men. I would gladly have come to your city as any 
stranger, satisfied with meeting here and there an old acquaint- 
ance, and so passed along without formality and public attention. 
I was aware that I knew some among you, but I had no idea of 
meeting so many old friends. And though I would have been glad 
to avoid a reception, still I cannot refuse to meet you in such a way 
as you think proper. 

Gentlemen, 1 thank you for your kindness. I have done. [Ap- 
plause.] 

A large number of citizens, at the conclusion of his speech, were 
introduced to Mr. Greeley. All who have known him in the 
East, remark that he has never appeared so hearty and well as at 
present. He looked somewhat jaded and dusty from his long ride, 
but showed no signs of weariness. 

The crowd left him at 5 1-2, and he was not disturbed until he 
was waited upon to accompany a portion of the Committee to a 
very handsome dinner. About twenty guests sat down at 6 1-2, 
and, after dispatching the meal in a business-like way, Greeley 
was permitted to retire, and make ready for the evening's address. 
From the rapidity with which this was done, it is fair to presume 
that he had only to get Ins hat. 

A few minutes after eight he was on his way to Benton's 
Church. At the church he delivered a very able and telling speech 
upon the "Pacific Railroad." 

COMMENTS OF THE SACRAMENTO UNION. 

Greeley has come and gone. He was here a little short of thir- 
teen hours, during which time he held an informal levee, made a 
reception speech, partook of a special dinner, delivered an address, 
saw something of the city, opened and read his letters, partly ar- 
ranged the programme of his journey through the State, and took 
a sufficient night's rest to enable him to be up at five the next 
morning and take his seat in the stage which left the next hour 
for Grass Valley, a journey of between sixty and seventy miles 
over a wearisome mountain road. 

This dispatch is characteristic of the man. His prompt, business- 
like method, and his skill in crowding eA T ents into a narrow com- 
pass, not less than his facility of compressing facts and arguments 
in a short, off-hand speech would commend him to popular admi- 
10 



146 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

ration in this country, if he had no other qualities to support his 
fame. His hrief personal intercourse with our citizens while 
here, and his practical suggestions on the Pacific Railroad, accom- 
panied by the earnest and forcible manner of their delivery, have 
made a favorable impression in the community. At Folsom, where 
he was received by the Committee sent from this city, and where 
he volunteered a short address, the crowd were at first sensibly, 
moved to attempt a little good-humored joking at the quaint per- 
sonal appearance of the philosopher and his old style of oratory ; 
but before he had finished his second or third sentence, their atten- 
tion was very earnestly on the speaker, and he was interrupted as 
well as complimented at the close, by hearty cheering. 

This good opinion appears to extend to all classes, if -\ve except 
the ultra Southern politicians ; and a general wish is ielt to hear 
further from this editor, who writes for, aud is believed by 220,000 
" subscribers," and who has taken the field in person and in our 
midst, a Peter the Hermit in enthusiasm for the Pacific Railroad. 

While this "abolition editor," this "wretched fanatic," accord- 
ing to that moderate Lecompton organ, the San Francisco Her- 
ald, is appealing to our national sympathies on this railroad ques- 
tion, declaring that it is not a question of localities ; that, whether 
it runs to New York, or to San Antonio, Texas, (the favorite route 
of the San Francisco Herald^) it would be all the same; the con- 
trast presented by our Democratic Senator and Congressmen, who 
are now addressing the people, is peculiarly striking. 

The one, strong in honest purpose, and full of nervous energy 
pressing the need of this road, and the duty of our citizens toward 
the government ; the others not deigning to give even an explana- 
tion of their views and the policy of thousands of our country- 
men in the East. 

Neither the views nor the personal influence of our Lecompton 
delegates to the next Congress will be of any practical benefit to 
the road, admitting (which we do not) that they are its sincere and 
disinterested friends. 

The notable circumstance that the editor of the Tribune is en- 
deavoring to arouse the country in behalf of a Pacific Railroad, 
immediately on his arrival at the end of his long journey, almost 
before he has brushed the dust of travel from his garments, will 
carry greater weight with it in the East than all Gwin has ever 
said, or can say, in Congress. It will be personal testimony in 
favor of the enterprise of the strongest kind. 



HORACE GREELEY. 147 

IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY. 

The night was clear and bright, as all summer nights in this 
region are ; the atmosphere cool, hut not really cold; the moon 
had risen hefore seven o'clock, and was shedding so much light as 
to bother us in our forest path, where the shadow of a standing 
pine looked exceedingly like the substance of a fallen one, and 
many semhlances were unreal and misleading. The safest course 
was to give your horse a full rein, and trust to his sagacity or self- 
love for keeping the trail. 

As we descended hy zig-zags the north face of the all hut per- 
pendicular mountain, our moonlight soon left us, or was present 
only hy reflection from the opposite cliff. Soon the trail became 
at once so steep, so rough, and so tortuous, that we all dis- 
mounted; but my attempt at walking proved a miserable failure. 
I had been riding with a bad Mexican stirrup, which barely ad- 
mitted the toes of my left foot, and continual pressure on these 
had sprained and swelled them so that walking was positive tor- 
ture. I persisted in the attempt till my companions insisted on my 
remounting; and thus floundering slowly to the bottom. 

By steady effort we descended the three miles (4,000 feet perpen- 
dicular) in two hours, and stood at midnight by the rushing, roar- 
ing waters of the Mercede. 

That first full, deliberate gaze up the opposite height! can I ever 
forget it? The valley is here scarcely half a mile mide, while its 
northern wall of mainly naked, perpendicular granite is at least 
4,000 feet high, probably more. But the modicum of moonlight 
that fell into this awful gorge, gave to that precipice a vagueness 
of outline, an indefinite vastness, a ghostly and wierd spirituality. 
Had the mountain spoken to me in audible voice, or began to lean 
over with the purpose of burying me beneath its crushing mass, I 
should hardly have been surprised. Its whiteness, thrown into 
bold relief by the patches of trees or shrubs, which fringed or 
flecked it wherever a few handfuls of its moss, slowly decom- 
posed to earth, could contrive to hold on, continually suggested 
the presence of snow, which suggestion, with difficulty reputed, 
was at once renewed. And looking up the valley, we saw just 
such mountain precipices, barely separated by intervening water- 
courses (mainly dry at this season) of inconsiderable depth, and 
only receding sufficiently to make room for a very narrow meadow 
enclosing the river, to the farthest limit of vision. 

"VVe discussed the propriety of camping directly at the foot of the 



148 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

pass, but decided against it, because of tbe inadequacy of the grass 
at this point for our tired, hungry beasts, and resolved to push on 
to the nearest of the two houses in the valley, which was said to 
be four miles distant. To my dying day I shall remember that 
weary, interminable ride up the valley. 

We had been on foot since daylight ;. it was now past midnight ; 
all were nearly used up, and I in torture from over eleven hours' 
steady riding on the hardest trotting horse in America. Yet we 
pressed on and on, through clumps of trees, and bits of forest, and 
patches of meadow, and over hillocks of mountain debris, mainly 
granite boulders of every size, often nearly as round as cannon- 
balls, forming all but perpendicular banks to the capricious torrent 
that brought them hither— those stupendous precipices on either 
side glaring down upon us all the while. How many times our 
heavy eyes — I mean those of my San Francisco friend and my own 
— were lighted up by visions of that intensely desired cabin, vis- 
ions which seemed distinct and unmistakable, but which, alas ! a 
nearer view proved to be made up of moonlight and shadow, rock 
and tree, into which they faded one after another. It seemed at 
length that we should never reach the cabin, and my wavering 
mind recalled elfish German stories of the wild huntsman, and of 
men who, having accepted invitations to a midnight chase, found 
on their return that said chase had been prolonged till all their 
relatives and friends were dead, and no one could be induced to 
recognize or recollect them. Gladly could I have thrown myself 
recklessly from the saddle and lain where I fell till morning, but 
this would never answer, and we kept steadily on : 

" Time and the hour wear out the longest day." 

At length the real cabin — one made of posts and beams and 
whipsawed boards, instead of rock, and shadow, and moonshine — 
was reached, and we all eagerly dismounted, turning out our 
weary steeds into abundant grass, and stirring up the astonished 
landlord, who had never before received guests at that unusual 
hour. (It was after 1 A. M.) He made us welcome, however, to 
his best accommodations, which would have found us lenient 
critics even had they been worse, and I crept into my rude but 
clean bed so soon as possible, while the rest awaited the prepara- 
tion of some refreshment for the inner man. 

There was never a dainty that could have tempted me to eat at 
that hour. I am told that none ever before traveled from Bear 
Valley to the Yosemite in one day — I am confident no greenhorns 
ever did. The distance can hardly exceed thirty miles by an air 



HORACE GREELEY. 149 

line; but only a bird could traverse that line; while, by way of 
Mariposa and the South Fork, it must be fully sixty miles, with a 
rise and fall of not less than 20,000 feet. 

The Fall of the Yosemite, so called, is a humbug. It is not the 
Mercede River that makes this fall, but a mere tributary trout- 
brook, which pitches in from the north by a barely once broken 
descent of 2,600 feet, while the Mercede enters the valley at its 
eastern extremity, over the falls of 600 and 250 feet. But a river 
thrice as large as the Mercede at this season would be utterly 
dwarfed by all the other accessaries of this prodigious chasm. 
Only a Mississippi or a Niagara could be adequate to their exac- 
tions. 

I readily concede that a hundred times the present amount of 
water may roll down the Yosemite fall in the months of May and 
June, when the snows are melting from the central ranges of the 
Sierra Nevada, which bound this abyss on the East ; but this 
would not add a fraction to the wonder of this vivid exemplifica- 
tion of the Divine power and majesty. 

At present, the little streams that leap down the Yosemite, 
and is all but shattered to mist by the amazing descent, looks more 
like a tape-line let down from the cloud-capped height to measure 
the depth of the abyss. 

The Yosemite Valley (or gorge) is the most unique and majes- 
tic of nature's marvels ; but the Yosemite Fall is of little account. 
"Were it absent, the valley would not be perceptibly less worthy of 
a fatiguing visit. 

We traversed the valley from end to end next day, but an accu- 
mulation of details on such a subject only serves to confuse and 
blunt the observer's powers of perception and appreciation. 

Perhaps the visitor who should be content with a long look into 
the abyss from the most convenient height, without having the 
toil of a descent, would be wiser than all of us; and yet that first 
glance upward from the foot will long haunt me as more impress- 
ive than any look downward from the summit could be. 

I shall not multiply details, not waste paper in noting all the 
foolish names which foolish people have given to different peaks 
or turrets. Just think of two giant stone towers or pillars, which 
rise a thousand feet above the towering cliff which forms their 
base, being styled " The Two Sisters !" 

Could anything be more maladroit and lackadaisical? 

" The Dome " is a high, round, naked peak, which rises betAveeu 
the Mercede and its little tributary from the inmost recesses of the 
Sierra Nevada already instanced, and which towers to an altitude 



150 LIFE AND CAREER OP 

of over five thousand feet above the waters of its base. Picture 
to yourself a perpendicular wall of bare granite, nearly or quite a 
mile high. 

Yet there are some dozen or score of peaks in all ; ranging - from 
three thousand to five thousand feet above the valley, and a biscuit, 
tossed from any of them would strike very near its base, and its 
fragments go hounding and falling still farther. 

I certainly miss here the glaciers of Chamouni ; but I know no 
single wonder of nature on earth which can claim a superiority 
over the Yosemite. Just dream yourself for one hour in a chasm 
nearly ten miles long, with egress for birds and water out either 
extremity, and none elsewhere save at three points, up the face of 
precipices from three thousand to four thousand feet high, the 
chasm scarcely more than a mile wide at any point, and tapering 
to a mere gorge or canyon at either end, with walls of mainly naked 
and perpendicular white granite, from three thousand to five thou- 
sand feet high, so that looking up to the sky from it is like looking 
out of an unfathomable profound, and you will have some concep- 
tion of the Yosemite. 

We dined at two o'clock, and then rode leislurly down the val- 
ley, gazing by daylight at the wonders we had previously passed 
in the night. The spectacle was immense ; but I still think the 
moonlight view the more impressive. 

AT SAN FRANCISCO. 

Mr. Greeley was heartily welcomed at San Francisco, and 
displayed his usual good sense and taste in responding to the 
public feeling. The following is taken from the Bulletin of 
that city, descriptive of his appearance at a public meeting : 

The Grand Pacific Railroad mass meeting, which took place on 
the evening of 17th August, in front of the Oriental, on the occa- 
sion of the public appearance in San Francisco of the Hon. Hob- 
ace Greeley, was an imposing demonstration, and in all respects 
a decided success. By 7 1-2 o'clock the people had collected in 
vast numbers, and the plaza and street in front of the hotel were 
crowded. There must have been, at a fair computation, five thou- 
sand people present; and all manifested much interest in the great 
object for which the meeting was called, and in the man who was 
to address them. 



HORACE GREELEY. 151 

The Oriental Hotel was brilliantly illuminated for the occasion. 
Between the pillars of the veranda were hung many Japanese lan- 
terns, and the balustrades were filled with lamps. 

As it was known many ladies would be present, seats were 
placed on the balcony for thein ; and long before the speaker com- 
menced, these, and the windows and rooms opening upon them, 
were filled. 

Among the ladies of the balcony, A. J. King, the stock-broker, 
happened to be espied by the crowd, and loud cries " Put him out," 
"How's your toenails," and other such expressions were heard, 
and for some time the audience was very boisterous at the notori- 
ous broker's expense. This, however, was before the meeting 
organized. 

At eight o'clock, Ira P. Rankin stepped forward upon the plat- 
form, and nominated a president and officers of the meeting. 

As soon as the meeting was organized, Mr. Greeley made his 
appearance upon the stand which had been erected in front of the 
hotel, and was raised about six feet above the street. 

His appearance was greeted with prolonged cheers. Colonel 
Crocket stepped forward for the purpose of introducing the 
speaker ; but the crowd was so anxious to see and hear Mr. Gree- 
ley, that for a few minutes lie could not be heard. The more dis- 
tant portions of the assembly cried, " We cannot see Mr. Gree- 
ley," " Take the balcony," " We want to see him." Colonel 
Crockett replied that Mr. Greeley protested that he could not 
be heard from the balcony. The crowd seemed determined that 
they would see the speaker, and hurrahed and vociferated until 
the President stated that Mr. Greeley would compromise by 
standing on the table. At this proposition there was great ap- 
plause, and order being restored, after a few words of introduc- 
tion by the President of the meeting, Mr. Greeley mounted the 
table and stood up before the people, at which there were again 
hearty and repeated cheers. Several firemen's torches were so 
disposed on the stand as to throw their light upon him. 

The personal appearance of Mr. Greeley is familiar to many 
of our readers. He is above the medium height, rather thin, and 
has a slight stoop. His head is bald, with the exception of light 
flaxen locks at the sides and back. Though nearly fifty years of 
age, there are no wrinkles in his face; on the contrary, his fea- 
tures, except for his baldness, would indicate quite a young man. 
There is a peculiar brightness in his eyes, and the general expres- 
sion of his face, is mildness and benignity. 



152 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

His dress, last evening', after drawing off his drab overcoat (from 
Which the mountaineers cut off all the buttons), was plain black, 
with a light neckcloth. The famous white hat had been exchanged 
for one of dun-colored wool. 

His late journey across the Plains, although it fatigued him 
much, has made him weigh more than ordinarily, and has giveu 
him a fresh and hale appearance. 

"Remember, my frends," said he, at the close of an agricultural 
address, "Remember that the end of all true agricultural, as well 
as of effort in other directions, is the growth and perfection of the 
human race. 

Vain is all other progress unless the human race progresses in 
knowledge, in industry, in temperance, and in virtue; and when 
this end is attained, no other need be despaired of. 

Let us remember this, and in all our fairs, in our gatherings, 
ask : Have the people around us grown in knowledge? Are our 
schools, our people better educated, more intelligent, more virtu- 
ous than they were thirty or ten years ago ? 

If they are, Ave may rejoice and feel confident that agriculture 
and all other useful arts will go forward hand in hand. 

To the Mechanic's Institute of San Francisco he said : 

The new idea of our time is founded upon a better understand- 
ing of the law of God and humanity. It recognizes all useful lahor 
as essentially laudible and honorable — the greater honor where 
there is the greater proficiency. The digger who makes the thou- 
sandth part of a canal is not of honor equal to the scientific engi- 
neer who fully accomplishes the work of its construction. More 
honor with greater intelligence, but honor to each in his degree, 
but the larger honor is due to him who accomplishes the greater 
result. 

Simply manual labor can never achieve the highest reward, nor 
command the greatest regard. Hand and head must work to- 
gether. To accomplish great results the laborer must be intelli- 
gent and educated. 

In this country, the price of labor is comparatively high, and yet 
it is a question whether it is not, on the whole, cheaper in the end 
than elsewhere. Nicholas Bibble, and other distinguished thinkers 
upon the subject, asserted that American labor at a higher price 
was cheaper than the labor of Spain or most other countries at 
almost nominal rates. 

In building the bed of a railroad, for instance, it is found cheaper 
with American labor, or labor under their guidance and direction, 
than with any other. This is proved by the fact that railroads can 



HORACE GREELEY. 153 

be built in America at one-sixth part of the cost of construction 
than in Italy, and I believe, in Ireland also. 

Labor, as it becomes better educated, will also become more 
effective, and when it receives its double reward it will be more 
profitable. 

From these extracts it will be seen that Mr. Greeley's visit to 
California was made a public benefit. In his speeches he urged 
forward the cause of industry and intelligence, and the great 
profit of the Pacific R. R., and when he adverted to politics it 
was in earnest advocacy of liberty, as against slavery and patri- 
otism, as opposed to the selfish and ambitious schemes of the 
Southern politicians. Bold-spoken champion of the people and 
human rights, he sought to do practical good wherever he went — 
even on a trip of pleasure. 

He returned to New York by way of Panama, reaching there 
late in September, after an absence of five months. 

the war and its scenes. 

The National Convention of the Republican party held at Chi- 
cago May 16, 1860, nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for 
the Presidency ; and it is not misrepresenting the influence of Mr. 
Greeley to say that, had it not been for his opposition, W. H. 
Seward of New York would have been the nominee. 

He attended the Convention by special appointment as a dele- 
gate — by substitution — from Oregon, and did not support Mr. 
Seward because, as he expressed it, he considered his nomination 
"unadvisable and unsafe." His choice was Judge Edward 
Bates of Missouri. "I deem him," he said, "the man whose 
election would, while securing the devotion of the Territories to 
free labor, conciliate and calm the slave States in view of a Re- 
publican ascendency. But more than all I felt that the nomina- 
tion of Judge Bates would have given a basis and impetus to the 
emancipation cause in Missouri, which would nevermore have been 
arrested. And now, where all the world is raining boquets on the 
successful nominee, so that if he were not a very tall man, he 



154 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

might stand a chance to be smothered under them — when thou- 
sands are rushing to bore him out of house and home and snow- 
ing him white with letters, and trying to plaster him all over with 
their advertising placards. I, who knew and esteemed him ten 
years ago, reiterate that I think Judge Bates, to whom I never 
spoke nor wrote, would have been the wiser choice." 

It was violently contended that Mr. Greeley had been influ- 
enced by personal motives in his opposition to Mr. Seward ; but 
this was emphatically denied by him and in the heated controversy 
that ensued on the matter and which we have not space to describe, 
he defended his course with such irresistible force, that even his 
enemies did not persist in the charge. His subsequent action fur- 
nished additional reputation ; for he heartily approved, editori- 
ally of the selection of Mr. Seward for the State Department. It 
has never been seriously charged against the editor of the Tri- 
bune that he was in any cause an office-seeker, or sought in 
any way to utilize the great influence he commanded for his per- 
sonal benefit. If such a charge had ever been made, his conduct 
at this time would disprove it ; for it is unquestioned, that he 
was, practically, offered the Postmaster Generalship under Lin- 
coln, but distinctly refused it in advance through his friend, 
the Honorable Schuyler Colfax. 

The terrible outbreak which followed the election of Lincoln, 
and which, notwithstanding its long, gloomy and threatening pre- 
face of embittered controversy on the slave question, burst upon 
the North like a thunder clap, is of too recent a date to need any 
particular description here. Horace Gkeeley found it difficult 
to realize that the Southern leaders really intended actual war ; 
but the editorials of the Tribune clearly indicate that he appre- 
ciated the critical and dangerous task before the new administra- 
tion. The rumored secession of the Southern States was dis- 
cussed, and he plainly expressed the view that " If seven or eight 
contiguous States shall present themselves authentically at Wash- 
ington, saying : ' we hate the Federal Union ; we have withdrawn 
from it ; we give you the choice between acquiescing in our seces- 
sion, and arranging amicably all incidental questions on the ono 



HORACE GREELEY. 155 

hand, and attempting to subdue us on the other ' — we could not 
stand up for coercion for subjugation, for we do not think it 
would be just. We hold the right of self-government sacred ; 
even when invoked in behalf of those who deny it to others. So 
much for the question of principle!" He demanded however, that 
proof — absolute proof — should be presented ; that the Southern 
States really desired to separate themselves from the Union, and 
denied that a body of furious leaders were accredited exponents 
of the popular wish. 

The cannon fired on Fort Sumter, however, dissipated all delu- 
sions. War became terribly revealed as an inexorable necessity, 
and then Abraham Lincoln became as determined as he had before 
been incredulous, and Horace Greeley also, notwithstanding his 
native benevolence and horror of bloodshed, concentrated his pow- 
ers in support of the government. He advocated the strongest and 
most prompt measures, and his earnest words of encouragement 
rung through the nation. 

The much abused paragraphs " Forward to Richmond," were 
kept standing in the Tribune without his orders ; but when the 
dreadful reverse of Bull Run plunged the nation in fright and 
lamentation, he did not attempt to evade the responsibility. " The 
war-cry," he said, " did not originate with me ; but it is just 
what should have been uttered, and the words should have been 
translated into deeds. Instead of energy, vigor, promptness, dar- 
ing, decision, we had in our councils weakness, irresolution, hes- 
itation, delay ; and when at last our hastily collected forces after 
being demoralized by weeks of idleness and dissipation, were sent 
forward, they advanced on separate lines under different com- 
mandei-s ; thus enabling the enemy to concentrate all his forces in 
Virginia against a single corps of ours, defeating and stampeding 
it at Bull Run ; while other Union volunteers aggregating nearly 
twice its strength, lay idle and useless near Harper's Ferry, in and 
about Washington and at Fortress Monroe." 

These words, however, were written in after years ; but it must 
be said that the reverse of the National arms nearly cost Mr. 
Greeley his life. He was attacked by brain fever while seeking 



l.Y» i-in: anu e wu:i:u 01 

retirement for a few days on his farm, and for xioarlv s;\ \uvks WSJ 

confined to his bed, and dangerously ill. 

I August, 1862, he addressed the President through tho JW- 
u The Prayer ^( Twenty Millioi 
urging the President to give efficacy to the law which (reed all 
- ooming within the Northern linos, ami to enforce the eon* 
on tot — and to this lottor Mr. Lincoln replied publicly in a 
letter stating his purposes according to his viow of official duty 
and indicating that his great and ruling object was to •• save the 
Union," and that everything was to be in subordination to this — 
even the freedom of the s'.nos. Mr. GkBKLBI replied in a letter 
of unusual eloquence and foree, demonstrating that to effectually 
trtr, the freedom of the loyal slaves must be recog- 
nised. 

This letter was dated Nov York, August 24, lSoJ ; and twen- 
ty-niue days after its publication, the Proclamation of Emanei- 

Q was promulgated. 'To what extent he hastened its issue, 
so far as Mr. Lincoln was concerned, wo do no: know ; but oer- 
tain it is that he helped forward the developments that led to this 
great result, more than any one man in Amor 

Mr. Gtau '. 1 1 \ \n.is intensely earnest in urging the prosecution 

of the war; but he was yet anxious for any honorable peaee whieh 
would leave the integrity of th< Onion untouched, and slavery for- 
ever abolished. 

During 186&, particularly all good men yearned for a termina- 
tion of the awful strife ; and it was this patriotic and benevolent 
desire that drew him into the celebrated peaoe negotiations ; which, 
if they proved fruitless, yet illustrate his earnestness, and have 
aal. His first effort is indicated in the following 
. which was written pr.\ W. 0. Jewitt, and wafl pub- 

lished by the latter without the consent of its author: 

Nww Tons, Jan. *:, IMS. 

Prvt; Sir; In whatever yon may do to restore peace to our 
distracted country, boar these things in mind; 
l. Whatever action is taken must bo between the government of 



i.)j<: (,'jiit< d t<\ the* authority f«dcr« 

'Hi<:l<; lllU-l \i>: BO u offi- 

cial persons* AD roneandc idersutho z 

in. 

/ I • hi ;". I 

iiD ted though intornu .'';*; that the Coniedei 

t;.l.'li III': jjiiti: 

'J be in;, I by ttl4 " 

/'J, on being assured that tl 
reciprocated, I Initiate ')/'; form*] proposition. 

:;. n arbitration shall b<; j must be 

- (■ 'I : 

ii,': arbiter mnfi beano lehbaeei i>ar- 

tiality or nnfrieudliuej 

that. has no Interest la the partition or & 

our ' OUnl 

'I One that does not ol the Republican 

j, 1 inefple in government! 

Great Britain ami I urn": rtc; nww*r\\y <-/.< \\\<\<A \>y th'.irhav- 

rtuaily conf< ed tneii wishe* that we should be divided; 
and Louis Hapoleon lis rial interest In pre iWi<:* 

impracticable. For if the Republican '>-. a legitimate, beneneent 
form ol government, what must be the verdict of . on the 

if the Ft each Republic. 
You will fiu'l, I think, no hearty supporter of the Union who 
will agree that our government iliall set Lnthepremi* 
on a frank, open proposition from the Confederates, proposing 
arbitration by a friendly power or powei . I consider no man a 
friend of the (Jnion who makei a parade of peace | 
peace agitation prior to raeli action. 

roars, 

Ah suggested in this letter, .Mr. Jewett made efforts to ?; 
tain tli'; dispositioi] of the Bebel leaden towards peace, and to 
what terms they would consent, but without satisfactory result. 

In July, 1864, Mr. Gbeklsy, after fresh correspondence with 
Mr. Jewett, addressed the following 1 President Iincobi: 



158 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

HORACE GREELEY TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN. p> 

New York, July 7, 1,664. 

My Dear Sir: — I venture to enclose you a letter and tele- 
graphic dispatch that I received yesterday from our irrepressible 
friend, Colorado Jewett, at Niagara Falls. 

I think they deserve attention. Of course, I do not endorse 
Jewett's positive averment that his friends of the Falls have "full 
powers" from J. D. [Jefferson Davis], though I do not doubt that 
he thinks they have. I let that statement stand as simply evi- 
dencing the anxiety of the Confederates everywhere for peace. 
So mmch is beyond doubt. 

And, therefore, I venture to remind you that our bleeding, 
bankrupt, almost dying country, also longs for peace — shudders at 
the prospect of fresh conscriptions, of future wholesale devasta- 
tions, and of new rivers of human blood ; and a wide-spread con- 
viction that the government and its prominent supporters are not 
anxious for peace, and do not improve proffered opportunities to 
achieve it, is doing great harm now, and is morally certain, unless 
removed, to do far greater in the approaching elections. 

It is not enough that we anxiously desire a true and lasting 
peace ; we ought to demonstrate and establish the truth beyond 
cavil. 

The fact that A. H. Stevens was not permitted a year ago to visit 
and confer with the authorities at Washington, has done harm ; 
which the tone of the late National Convention at Baltimore is 
not calculated to counteract. 

I entreat you, in your own time and manner, to submit overtures 
for pacification to the Southern insurgents, which the impartial 
must pronounce frank and generous. If only with a view to the 
momentous election soon to occur in North Carolina, and of the 
draft to be enforced in the Free States, this should be done at once. 
I would give the safe-conduct required by the Rebel envoys at 
Niagara, upon their parole to avoid observation, and to refrain 
from all communication with their sympathizers in the loyal 
States ; but you may see reasons for declining it. 

But whether through them or otherwise, do not, I entreat you, 
fail to make the Southern people comprehend that you, and all of 
us, are anxious for peace, and prepared to grant liberal terms. I 



HORACE GREELEY. 159 

PLAN OP ADJUSTMENT. 

1. The Union is restored, and declared perpetual. 

2. Slavery is utterly and forever abolished throughout the 
same. 

8. A complete amnesty for all political offences, "with a restora- 
tion of all the inhabitants of each State to all the privileges of citi- 
zens of the United States. 

4. The Union to pay four hundred million dollars ($400,000,000), 
in five per cent. United States stock, to the late slave States, loyal 
and secession alike, to be apportioned pro rata, according to their 
slave population respectively, by the census of 1860, in compensa- 
tion for the losses of their loyal citizens by the abolition of slavery. 
Each State to be entitled to its quota upon the ratification by its 
legislature of this adjustment. The bonds to be at the absolute 
disposal of the legislature aforesaid. 

5. The said slave States to be entitled henceforth to representa- 
tion in the House on the basis of their total, instead of their Fed- 
eral population, the whole now being free. 

6. A national convention to be assembled so soon as may be, to 
ratify this adjustment, and make such changes in the Constitution 
as may be deemed advisable. 

Mr. President, I fear you do not realize how intently the people 
desire any peace consistent with the national integrity and honor, 
and how joyously they would hail its achievement, and bless its 
authors. 

With United States stocks worth but forty cents in gold per dol- 
lar, and drafting about to commence on the third million of Union 
soldiers, can this be wondered at ? 

I do not say that a just peace is now attainable, though I believe 
it to be so. But I do say that a frank offer by you to the insur- 
gents, of terms which the impartial world say ought to be accepted, 
will, at the worst, prove an immense and sorely needed adA r antage 
to the national cause. It may save us from a Northern insurrec- 
tion. Yours truly, 

Horace Greeley. 

To Hon. A. Lincoln, President, Washington, D. C. : 

P. S. — Even though it should be deemed unadvisable to make an 
offer of terms to the Rebels, I insist that, in any possible case, it is 
desirable that any offer they may be disposed to make should 
be received, and either accepted or rejected. 



160 LITE AND CAREER OF 

T beg you to invite those now at Niagara to exhibit their creden- 
tials, and submit their ultimatum. II. G. 

At the request of the President, Mr. Greeley visited Niagaia 
Falls, to personally confer with the assumed Confederate Com- 
missioners, when the following correspondence took place : 

GEORGE N. SANDERS TO HORACE GREELEY. 
[Private and confidential.] 

Clifton House, Niagara Falls, ) 
Canada West, July 12, 1864. \ 

Dear Sir : — I am authorized to say that tbe Honorable Clement 
C. Clay of Alabama, Professor James P. Holcombo of Virginia, 
and George N. Sanders of Dixie, are ready and willing to go at 
once to Washington, upon complete and unqualified protection 
being given either by the President or Secretary of War. 
Let the permission include the three names and one other. 
Very respectfully, 

George N. Sanders. 

HORACE GREELEY TO MESSRS. CLEMENT C. CLAY, AND OTHERS. 

Niagara Falls, N. Y., July 17, 1864. 

Gentlemen : — I am informed that you are duly accredited from 
Richmond, as the bearers of proposition looking to the establish- 
ment of peace ; that you desire to visit Washington in the fulfill- 
ment of your mission, and that you further desire that Mr. George 
N. Sanders shall accompany you. 

If my information be thus far substantially correct, I am author- 
ized by the President of the United States to tender you his safe- 
conduct on the journey proposed, and to accompany you at the 
earliest time that will be agreeable to you. 

I have the honor to be, gentlemen, yours, 

Horace Greeley. 

To 3fessrs. Clement C. Clay, Jacob Thompson and James P. 
Holcombe, Clifton House, C. W. 

messrs. clay and holcombe to horace greeley. 

Clifton House, Niagara Falls, 
July 18, 1864. 

Sir : — We have the honor to acknowledge your favor on the 17th 



HOKACE GKEELEY. 1G1 

instant, which would have been answered on yesterday, but for 
the absence of Mr. Clay. 

The safe-conduct of the President of the United States has been 
tendered us, we regret to state, under some misapprehension of 
facts. ; 

"We have not been accredited to him from Richmond, as the 
bearers of propositions looking to the establishment of peace. 

We are, however, in the confidential employment of our govern- 
ment, and are entirely familiar with its wishes and opinions on 
that subject; and Ave feel authorized to declare that, if the circum- 
stances disclosed in this correspondence were communicated to 
Richmond, we would be at once invested with the authority to 
which you refer, or other gentlemen clothed with full powers, 
would be immediately sent to Washington, with the view of has- 
tening a consummation so much to be desired, and terminating at 
the earliest possible moment the calamities of the war. 

"We respectfully solicit, through your intervention, a safe con- 
duct to Washington, and thence by any route which may be desig- 
nated, through your lines to Richmond. 

We Avould be gratified if Mr. George N. Sanders was embraced 
in this privilege. 

Permit us, in conclusion, to acknoAvledge our obligations to you 
for the interest you have manifested in the furtherance of our 
wishes, and to express the hope that, in any event, you Avill afford 
us the opportunity of tendering them in person before you leave 
the Falls. 

We remain very respectfully, &c, 

C. C. Clay, Jr. 

J. P. IIOLCOMBE. 

P. S. — Tt is proper to add that Mr. Thompson is not here, and 
has not been staying Avith us since our sojourn in Canada. 

horace greeley to messrs. clay and iiolcombe. 

International Hotel, Niagara, 
N. Y., July 18, 1864. 

Gentlemen: — I have the honor to acknoAvledge the receipt of 
yours of this date, by the hand of Mr. W. C. Jewett. 

The state of facts therein presented being materially different 

from that which was understood to exist by the President, Avheu 

he entrusted me Avith the safe-conduct required, it seems to me on 

everv account advisable that I should communicate with him bv 

'11 



1G2 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

telegraph, and solicit fresh instructions, which I shall at once pro- 
ceed to do. 

I hope to be able to transmit the result this afternoon, and, at 
all events, I shall do so at the earliest moment. 

Yours truly, 

Horace Greeley. 
To 3fessrs. Clement C. Clay and James P. Ilolcombe, Clifton 
House, C. W. 

messrs. clay and holcombe to horace greeley. 

Clifton House, Niagara Falls, ) 
July 18, 1864. \ 

To the Hon. II. Greeley, Niagara Falls, N. Y. : 

Sir: — We have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
note of this date, by the hands of Colonel Jewett, and will await 
the further answer which you purpose to send to us. 
We are very respectfully, &c, 

C. C. Clay, Jr., 
James P. IIolcombe. 

horace greeley to messrs. clay and holcombe. 

International Hotel, Niagara Falls, \ 
N. Y., July 19, 1864. \ 

Gentlemen : — At a late hour last evening- (too late for com- 
munication with you), I received a dispatch informing me that 
further instructions left Washington last evening, which must 
reach me, if there be no interruption, at noon to-morrow. Should 
you decide to await their arrival, I feel confident that they will 
enable me to answer definitely your note of yesterday morning. 

Regretting a delay, which 1 am sure will be regarded as un- 
avoidable on my part, 

I remain, yours truly, 

Horace Greeley. 
To the Honorable Messrs. C. C. Clay Jr., and J. P. Holcombe, 
Clifton House, Niagara, C. W. 

messrs. clay and holcombe to horace greeley. 

Clifton House, Niagara Falls, 
July 19, 1864. 

Sir : — Colonel Jewett has just handed us your note of this date, 
in which you state that further instructions from "Washington 



HORACE GREELEY. 163 

will reach you by noon to-morrow, if there be no interruption. 
One, or possibly both of us, may be obliged to leave the Falls to- 
day, but will return in time to receive the communication which 
you promise to-morrow. 

We remain truly ours, &c, 

James P. Holcombe. 
C. C. Clay, Jk. 

To the Honorable Horace Greeley, noio at the International 
Hotel. 



MESSES. CLAY AND HOLCOMBE TO M. C. JEWETT. 

Cr-IFTON HOUSE, NIAGARA FALLS, ) 

Wednesday, July 20, 1864. \ 
Colonel 31 C. Jewett, Cataract House, Niagara Falls : 

Sir: — We are in receipt of your note, admonishing' us of the de- 
parture of the Hon. Horace Greeley from the Falls; that he 
regrets the sad termination of the initiatory steps taken for peace, 
in consequence of the change made by the President in his instruc- 
tions to convey commissioners to Washington, for negotiations, 
unconditionally, and that Mr. Greeley will be pleased to receive 
any answer we may have to make through you. 

We avail ourselves of this offer to enclose a letter to Mr. Gree- 
ley, which you will oblige us by delivering. We cannot take 
leave of you without expressing our thanks for your courtesy and 
kind offices as the intermediary through whom our correspond- 
ence with Mr. Greeley has been conducted, and assuring you 
that Ave are, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servants, 

C. C. Clay, Jr. 
James P. Holcombe. 



messrs. clay and holcombe to horace greeley. 

Niagara Falls, Clifton House, 
July 21, 1864. 

To the Hon. Horace Greeley : 

Sir : — The paper handed to Mr. Holcombe on yesterday, in your 
presence, by Mayor Hay, A. A. G., as an answer to the applica- 
tion in our note of the 18th instant, is couched in the following 
terms : 



164 LITE AND CAREER OF 

Executive Mansion, Washington, T>. C., \ 

July 18, 1864. $ 

To whom it may concern : 

Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the 
integrity of the Avhole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and 
which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies 
now at war against the United States, will be received and con- 
sidered by the Executive Government of the United States, and 
will be met by liberal terms, on other substantial and collateral 
points, and the bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe conduct 
both ways. 

Abraham Lincoln. 

The application to which we refer was elicited by yoxir letter of 
the 17th instant, in which you inform Mr. Jacob Thompson and 
ourselves that you were authorized by the President of the United 
States to tender us his safe-conduct, on the hypothesis that we 
were ''duly accredited from Richmond as bearers of propositions 
looking to the establishment of peace," and desired a visit to Wash- 
ington in the fulfillment of this mission. 

This assertion, to which we then gave and still do, entire cre- 
dence, was accepted by us as the evidence of an unexpected but 
most gratifying change in the policy of the President — a change 
which we felt authorized to hope might terminate in the conclu- 
sion of a peace mutually just, honorable and advantageous to the 
North and to the South, exacting but that condition, but that 
we should be "duly accredited from Richmond as bearers of 
propositions looking to the establishment of peace." 

Thus proffering a basis for conference as comprehensive as we 
could desire, it seemed to us that the President opened a door 
which had previously been closed against the Confederate States 
for a full interchange of sentiments, free discussion of conflicting 
opinions, and untrammeled eft'ort to remove all causes of contro- 
versy by liberal negotiations. 

"We, indeed, could not claim the benefit of a safe-conduct which 
has been extended to us in a character we had no right to assume, 
and had never effected to possess ; but the uniform declarations of 
our Executive and Congress, and then thrice repeated and as often 
repulsed attempts to open negotiations, furnish a sufficient pledge 
to us that this conciliatory manifestation on the part of the Presi- 
dent of the United States, Avould be met by them in a temper ot 
equal magnanimity. 



HORACE GREELEY. 165 

Wo had, therefore, no hesitation in declaring that if this corres- 
pondence was communicated to the President of the Confederate 
States, he would promptly embrace the opportunity presented for 
seeking a peaceful solution of this unhappy strife. 

We feel confident that yon must share our profound regret that 
the spirit which dictated the first step toward peace, had not con- 
tinued to animate the councils of your President. 

Had the Representatives of the two governments met to con- 
sider this question, the most momentous ever submitted to human 
Statesmanship, in a temper of becoming moderation and equality, 
followed, as their deliberations would have been, by the prayers 
and benedictions of every patriot and Christian on the habitable 
globe, who is there so bold as to pronounce that the frightful 
waste of individual happiness and public prosperity which is 
daily saddening the universal heart, might not have been termin- 
ated, or if the desolation and carnage of war must still be endured 
through weary years of blood and suffering, that there might not 
at least have been infused into its conduct something more of the 
spirit which softens and partially redeems its brutalities ? 

Instead of the safe-conduct which we solicited, and which your 
first letter gave \is every reason to suppose would be extended for 
the purpose of initiating a negotiation, iu which neither govern- 
ment would compromise its rights or its dignity, a document has 
been presented which provokes as much indignation as surprise. 
It bears no feature of resemblance to that which was originally 
offered, and is unlike any paper which ever before emanated from 
the constitutional executive of a free people. 

Addressed "to whom it may concern," it precludes negotia- 
tions, and prescribes in advance the terms and conditions of peace. 
It returns to the original policy of " no bargaining, no negotia- 
tions, no truces with Rebels except to bury their dead, until every 
man shall have laid down his arms, submitted to the government, 
and sued for mercy." 

Whatever may be the explanation of this sudden and entire 
change in the views of the President, of this rude withdrawal of a 
courteous overture for negotiation at the moment it was likely to 
be accepted, of this emphatic recall of words of peace just uttered, 
and fresh blasts of war to the bitter end, we leave for the specula- 
tion of those who have the means of inclination to penetrate the 
mysteries of his cabinet, or fathom the caprice of his imperial will. 
It is enough for us to say that we have no use whatever for the 
paper which has been placed in our hands. 



166 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

"We could not transmit it to the President of the Confederate 
States without offering him an indignity, dishonoring ourselves, 
and incurring the well-merited scorn of our countrymen. 

"While an ardent desire for peace forbade the people of the Con- 
federate States, we rejoice to believe that there are few, if any, 
among them who would purchase it at the expense of liberty, 
honor and self-respect. 

If it can be secured only by their submission to terms of conquest, 
the generation is yet unborn which will witness its restitution. 

If there be any military autocrat in the North who is entitled to 
proffer the conditions of this manifesto, there is none in the South 
authorized to entertain them. 

Those who control our armies are the servants of the people- 
not their masters ; and they have no more inclination, than they 
have the right, to subvert the social institutions of the sovereign 
States, to overthrow their established constitutions, and to barter 
away their priceless heritage of self-government. This correspon- 
dence will not, however, Ave trust, prove wholly barren of good 
result. 

If there is any citizen of the Confederate States who has clung to a 
hope that peace was possible with this administration of the Fed- 
eral government, it will strip from his eyes the last film of such 
delusion ; or if there be any whose hearts have grown faint under 
the suffering and agony of this bloody struggle, it w T ill inspire 
them with fresh energy to endure and brave whatever may yet be 
requisite to preserve to themselves and their children all that gives 
dignity and value to life or hope, and consolation to death. 

And if there be any patriots or Christians in your land, who shrink 
appalled from the illimitable vista of private misery and public cal- 
amity which stretches before them, Ave pray that in their bosoms 
a resolution maybe quickened to recall the abused authority, and 
vindicate the outraged civilization of their country. 

For the solicitude you have manifested to inaugurate a movement 
which contemplates results the most noble and humane, Ave return 
our sincere thanks, and are most respectfully aud truly your obe- 
dient servants, 

C. C. Clay, Jr. 
James P. Holcombe. 

The negotiations thus closed as perhaps might have been ex- 
pected, but Mr. Greeley's efforts Avere properly appreciated 
throughout the country as sincere and patriotic, and they at last 



HORACE GREELEY. 167 

had the good result of enabling the people generally to understand 
that there was but one road to the end of hostilities. 

In a brief sketch of this character we cannot further pursue the 
scences of the war. The insane denunciations of the Tribune 
and its editor by the New York Herald, during the first years of 
the war, and its malignant efforts to represent Mr. Greeley as 
responsible for the strife of the national condition by his agitation 
against slavery, were probably the principal causes of the attempt 
to destroy the Tribune Office during the draft riots of July 1863. 
A mob attacked the building, and sacked the rooms on the lower 
story, and had Mr. Greeley fallen into their hands it is almost 
certain that his life would have been instantly sacrificed. Fortun- 
ately, an accidental alarm spread a panic among the assailants, 
and drove them off before more serious damage was inflicted, and 
the arrival of the police prevented further mischief. 

In 1863 Mr. Greeley commenced his excellent history of the 
war, which was finished in 1865. It was dedicated to " John 
Bright, British commoner and Christian statesman, etc." 

When the war closed, and the comfort of a glorious peace came 
to the heart of our wearied and convulsed nation, Horace Gree- 
ley became as prominent in his generosity towards the vanquished, 
as he had been in his stern advocacy of crushing rebellion. His 
plan of reconstruction, it has been well said, might be summed in 
four words : Universal Amnesty, Impartial Suffrage ; and towards 
this end he devoted the influence of the Tribune, and his OAvn 
weight as a public speaker. At a later date, he gave a distin- 
guished mark of his benevolent principles by the bailing of Jeffer- 
son Davis ; thus restoring him to liberty after two years' impris- 
onment at Fortress Monroe. 

In May, 1867, he went to Richmond for this purpose, and 
signed the bail-bond of $100,000, for the ex-Confederate chief ; 
although this act subsequently raised a storm of abuse against 
him among the more extreme classes of Republicans in the Eastern 
and Western States. The bond had twenty signatures, and among 
them were John Minor Botts, Augustus Schell, Gerrett Smith and 
Cornelius Vanderbilt and others. It was not through any lack of 



1G8 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

security that Horace Greeley was solicited to sign the bond ; 
but because the counsel for Mr. Davis believed it eminently desir- 
able that some names should be attached of Northern men who 
had been prominent opponents of the rebellion. This act by Mr. 
Greeley was highly applauded in the Southern press, and exer- 
cised a beneficial influence on the mind of the people in the South- 
ern States, as it illustrated the magnanimity of their conquerors. 
Its effect was deepened by the excellent speech delivered by Mr. 
Greeley at the African church in Richmond, during his visit. 



It was not our purpose in preparing a sketch of the life and 
career of Horace Greeley to attempt to group the details of 
an elaborate biography. We are aware that the friends of this 
distinguished personage may detect omissions in our hurried 
work; but we think we have given sufficient to enable the 
reader to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of his most use- 
ful and progressive life. As a mere narrative of facts, it is 
strangely suggestive and interesting ; and enables us to under- 
stand the man in all his admirable traits of character and ex- 
traordinary intellectual gifts as he now stands prominent 
among the distinguished men of the American nation. 

We have conducted this sketch, so far as important events are 
concerned, up to a recent date, that further particulars are un- 
necessary. Since his speech at Richmond, the succeeding events 
in Mr. Greeley's " Busy Life," have been many and interesting ; 
but they are so fresh in the public mind, that recapitulation is 
unnecessary. By his lectures and public addresses, at various 
points and on various occasions throughout the country, he has 
become more widely known — if that were possible — than before ; 
and there is not a man in the United States to-day, more gener- 
ally respected and esteemed. Perhaps the best proof of this is 
the fact that without any intrigues or political combinations on his 
part, his name is now prominent among the number mentioned as 
the probable next President of the United States. This is an 
honor — it would be an honor, were he to be chosen Chief Magis- 



HORACE GREELEY. 169 

trate of the nation — but it would not equal the honor now shed 
upon him by the career already accomplished. The man who lifts 
himself from obscurity and poverty into fame and fortune — who 
bears a stainless character through the busiest scenes of public 
and political life, for nearly half a century, and unites with this 
the grandest and most vital services to his country and humanity, 
can gain no additional distinction by any gift the people can con- 
fer. Such a man is Horace Greeley. 

SIXTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY. 

On the 3d of February last, 1872, Mr. Alvin J. Johnson of New 
York gave Mr. Greeley a reception in honor of his long and 
highly appreciated labors. Many friends of Mr. Greeley were 
invited, and the occasion was in every way complimentary to the 
distinction which the editor of the Tribune has gained, and the 
high regard in which he is held by his friends. The character of 
the reception can easily be inferred from the notices of the New 
York city press, as follows : 

Horace grbeley's sixty-first birthday. 

Last evening an unique entertainment was given at the house of 
Mr. Alvin J.Johnson, No. 323 "West Fifty-seventh st.. on the occasion 
of the sixty-first birthday of the veteran editor of the Tribune, 
Horace Greeley. One of the largest and most remarkable com- 
panies of men and women of letters that has ever been held in 
New York was present, representing nearly every profession, and 
including some of the most notable men and women in the coun- 
try. It was naturally composed mainly of Mr. Greeley's per- 
sonal friends, but these comprise an extended circle, and all parts 
of the Union were represented in the assemblage. 

Early in the evening an elegant dinner was partaken of by a se- 
lect few of Mr. Greeley's friends, including Mr. Johnson, Mr. 
Cleveland, Mr. George Ripley, the Eev. Dr. Chapin, Prof. Guyot, 
Prof. Youmans, Prof. Seeley, the Rev. O. B. Frothingham, F. B. 
Carpenter, most of these gentlemen being accompanied by their 
wives. 

At about 9 o'clock the rest of the company began to arrive, and 
remained until midnight. Several hundred persons were present, 



170 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

and the ample parlors were soon crowded with animated talkers. 
The mantels and every other available spot were covered with rare 
flowers, whose exquisite fragrance tilled the air. Several perform- 
ers supplied instrumental music, while Miss Emma Abbott, the 
admirable soprano of Mr. Chapin's church, and Miss Margaret 
Cleveland, niece of Mr. Greeley, sang several solos with much 
taste. Mr. Greeley received the congratulations of his many 
friends with natural pleasure ; and was, of course, the lion of the 
evening. 

Among the many noted persons present the names of only a few 
can be recalled, as follows : The Press was well represented by 
Murat Halstead of the Cincinnati Commercial, Sam Bowles of the 
Springfield Republican, ex-Gov. Hawley of the Hartford Courant, 
with Whitelaw Reed, Oliver Johnson, George Ripley, Sam Sinclair, 
and others of the Tribune ; Professor Eggleston, D. O. C. Town- 
ley, Mr. S. R. Wells and others. Judges Pierrepont and Fithian 
appeared for the bench, while Elliott C. Cowdorm, Gen. Sigel, 
Hon. Thomas Acton, Gen. Merritt, Marshall O.Roberts, and other 
well known gentlemen were present. 

Among men of letters were Col. Church, Richard H. Stoddard, 
John Elderkin, Mr. Squier, and Prof. Hitchcock ; while the three 
humorists, Mark Twain, Bret Harte and John Hay were also 
present. 

Science was present in the persons of President Barnard, Prof. 
Youmans, and Prof. Guyot. Among women writers were Mrs. 
Calhoun-Runkle, Mrs. Bullard, Mary L. Booth, Mrs. Towle and 
Mrs. Dr. Field. 

The Rev. Dr. Chapin, Dr. Field, the Rev. O. B. Frothingham, 
and the Rev. Mr. Sweetser appeared for the pulpit ; Mr. Edward 
Creswick represented the drama, Frank Carpenter art, and Anna 
Dickinson the platform. 

Taken as a whole, the entertainment was a great success, and 
was enjoyed by every one present. — New York World, Feb. 4. 

A reception was given, last evening, at the residence of A. J. 
Johnson, esq., in Eifty-seventh st., to Hon. Horace Greeley, on 
the completion of his sixty-first birthday. The reception was pre- 
ceded by an elaborate dinner, at which the guests, besides Mr. 
Greeley and his hosts, were Rev. Drs. Chapin and Frothingham, 
George Ripley, esq., F. B. Carpenter, the artist ; J. F. Cleveland, 
esq., Prof. E. L. Youmans, Arnold Gayot, Roswell D. Hitchcock, 
J. Thomas, J. H. Seelye Qf Amherst College, and Mr. Oliver John- 
son, all of these gentlemen being accompanied by their wives, and 
Mr. Clovcland by his daughter. The party had scarcely left the 



HORACE GREELEY. 171 

table before the guests began to arrive. A large number of invi- 
tations had been issued, each card containing a hue steel engraving 
ot Mr. Greeley, and a fac-simile of his characteristic autograph. 
Nearly all who were invited responded in person. There was 
scarcely a social set, scarcely a political or professional interest in 
the Metropolis, which was not fully represented. There was no 
one there who knew everybody else, but they all knew the guest 
of the evening, and all seemed glad to do him honor. It was long 
after the time appointed for the close of the reception before the 
last guests reluctantly retired, with good wishes for the great 
journalist. — New York Times. 

dr. greeley's birthday — a brilliant honor of our later 
franklin — mr. alvin johnson's celebration — the 
veteran editor's reception — fifty-seventh 
street blocked with carriages — a re- 
markable entertainment. 

Saturday was Dr. Greeley's 61st birthday. Dr. Greeley 
boards with Mr. Alviu J. Johnson, the well known map publisher, 
at 323 West Fifty-seventh street. In honor of the Doctor's birth- 
day, Mr. Johnson issued cards for a reception. These cards were 
decorated with an exquisite steel engraving of Dr. Greeley, and 
a fac-simile of his signature. 

The reception proper was between the hours of 9 and 11 p. m. 
At 6 p. m. au elegant dinner was served to Dr. Greeley and a 
select circle of his friends. Among these were Mr. Oliver John- 
son, Dr. George Ripley, the Hon. John Cleveland, the Rev. Dr. E. 
H. Chapin, the Rev. O. B. Frothingham, F. B. Carpenter, Profs. 
Guyot, Youmans and Seeley. The most of these gentlemen were 
accompanied by their wives. 

The dinner was a plain one. No wines were served. The beef- 
steaks were not dressed with mushrooms. There were no Roman 
punches, and no quail frizzed with foolscap. It was a substantial 
dinner served to substantial men and women. 

THE RECEPTION. 

At 9:30 in front of 323 Fifty-seventh street was jammed with car- 
riages. Such a jam has probably never been seen in this city. The 
night was very cold and the snow was very deep. A canvas funnel 
had been run from the door of 323 to the edge of the sidewalk. 
The sidewalk and the steps of the mansion were carpeted. The 
guests alighted at the entrance to the funnel. A police officer con- 



172 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

ducted them to the door, where they were received by a colored 
gentleman in full costume, who directed them to the ladies' and 
gentlemen's dressing rooms. The parlors on the second floor were 
set aside for the exclusive use of the ladies. The gentlemen were 
assigned to the parlors on the third floor. Dr. Greeley received 
his friends in the parlors on the first floor. The parlors were fes- 
tooned with flowers and evergreens. Beautiful pictures hung on 
the walls. Among these was an exquisite portrait of Dr. Gree- 
ley. It was bordered Avith evergreens, and topped with an im- 
mense triangle of white flowers. A red star was in the centre of 
the triangle, and at its base was the following : 



1811. 1872. 



A large basket of flowers swung from the ceiling between the 
folding doors. A musical gentleman presided at the piano in the 
back parlor. At his side sat a violinist. At stated intervals sweet 
strains of melody floated through the parlors. 

Dr. Greeley stood at the door of the front parlor leading into 
the hall. Mrs. Johnson was at his right, and Mr. Johnson at his 
left. The Doctor received his guests with more than his usual 
suavity, and introduced them to his kind host and hostess. At 10 
o'clock the parlors were perfectly packed. Among the guests who 
were struggling in the crowd, a Sun reporter noticed ex-Governor 
Hawiey of Connecticut, ex-Governor Morgan and wife of New 
York, Gen. Franz Sigel, ex-Police Commissioner Thos. C. Acton, 
the beetle-browed Mark Twain, who has accused Mr. Greeley of 
swearing whenever he shaved himself, Mr. John Hay, the Hon. 
Murat Halstead of Cincinnati, who seemed like a singed cat in a 
garret, Miss Anna E. Dickinson and Whitelaw Reid, Mr. Bayliss 
of the Iron Age, Mr. June of the World, Elliot C. Cowdin, Alder- 
man Rooney, Gen. Merritt, Marshall O. Roberts, the Hon. Samuel 
Bowles, Mrs. Samuel Sinclair and her husband, the Hon. Thomas 
N. Rooker, Col. Church, the Hon. Samuel R. Wells, Mary L. Booth, 
Col. A. J, H. Duganne, Eli Priggins of the Commercial, and many 
other politicians and gentlemen. 

One of the most interesting events of the evening was the sing- 
ings of Miss Emma Abbott, the beautiful soprano of Dr. Chapin's 
church. She sang in the back parlor. Her first selection was from 
"La Fille du Regiment." She sang it sweetly and with much 



HORACE GREELEY. 173 

spirit. Universal applause followed her effort. It was apparently 
not appreciated by Dr. Greeley, who stood at her side. He re- 
quested as a personal favor that she would sing " Auld Laug Syne." 
She sang it. Dr. Greeley stood partly facing her. He wore a 
delicate bouquet in the buttonhole of his dress coat, and bore a 
magnificent nosegay in his left hand. Miss Abbott sang the song 
with deep feeling. It touched the good Doctor's heart. He forgot 
that he was in the midst of a gay company, and kept his eyes upon 
his nosegay, whispering the words of the song to himself, and keep- 
ing time with his head while Miss Abbott sang. The sweet singer 
dropped her white kid glove. Dr. Greeley did not see it. It 
was picked up by a young gentleman with diamond studs and a 
small black moustache, who returned it to Miss Abbott at the end 
of the song. When the fair singer reached the line, 

An' gies a liand o 1 thine, 

her feelings overcame her. Advancing a step, she proffered her 
right hand to Dr. Greeley, who, for one moment, seemed at a 
loss what to do — for a moment only — and then seized Miss Ab- 
bott's hand, shook it heartily, and stopped whispering the words 
of the song. 

During the singing the inattentive loungers in the front parlor 
chattered nonsense. They made so much noise that ex-Gov. Mor- 
gan, who was apparently deep affected, raised his towering form 
and waved his hands toward the thoughtless chatterers, saying, 
" Sh— sh— sh !" 

Miss Abbott's song was heartly cheered, and by no one more 
than by Dr. Greeley. At the conclusion of the song Miss Anna 
Dickinson, who was dressed in yellow silk, with a black lace fichu, 
shook hands with Dr. Greeley, and talked with him long and 
earnestly. 

Lunch was announced at 10:30. It was spread in the front base- 
ment. The table was covered with frosted cake and bon-bons. 
Coffee and chocolate were served. A colored gentleman had charge 
of the urn. The repast was unique, but comme il faut. Every- 
body was pleased. 

It was midnight when the last guest shook the good and great 
Dr. Greeley by the hand, and asked the colored waiter to sum- 
mon his hack. — New York Sun. 



174 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

THE SAGE OF CHAPPAQUA — HORACE GREELEY'S SIXTY-FIRST 

BIRTHDAY — A BRILLIANT GATHERING IN HONOR OF 

THE CHIEF EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK "TRIBUNE." 

On Saturday evening a large number of people accepted, with 
pleasure, the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Johnson, of Fifty- 
seventh street, to celebrate the 61st birthday of Horace Gree- 
ley. 

The cards which called together these people, were most hand- 
somely gotten up. Each bore a fine steel engraving of Mr. Gree- 
ley, and a fac simile of his famous autograph, and will doubtless 
serve long as a momento of so interesting an occasion. The recep- 
tion was preceded by an elaborate dinner, given by Mr. Johnson, 
at whose home Mr. Greeley has spent a great part of the last 
year, and was partaken of by Professors Guyot, Seelye, J. Thomas 
Roswell, D. Hitchcock, Dr. Chapin, Mr. Frothingham, F. B. Car- 
penter, Oliver Johnson, John F. Cleveland, and their wives. 

The drawing-room was transformed into a garden of exotics. 
Rustic baskets swung among trailing vines from arches and door- 
ways ; the branching chandeliers were hidden under riotous ten- 
drils and delicate leaves ; the mantels blossomed like gay parter- 
res ;* every nook and corner held some fragrant memoirs of sum- 
mer ; and on a side table was an exquisite basket of flowers, bear- 
ing in the centre the initial " G," formed of red flowers in a sett- 
ing of tuberoses — a gift to Mr. Greeley from an appreciative 
florist. Most conspicuous of these floral decorations was that fram- 
ing Mr. Carpenter's portrait of Mr. Greeley, which hung on the 
wall, surrounded by delicate greens, interspersed with scarlet flow- 
ers, and surmounted by a piece of floral architecture, inclosing in 
a frame of white camelias and tuberoses a purple star, under which 
were the dates " 1811-1872 " in scarlet. On the other side of the 
door, by the same artist, was the portrait of Alice Cary, whose 
benignant face and tender eyes looked lovingly down from the 
framework of lines and flowers upon the friends among whom she 
once moved a welcome presence, and on that other lifelong friend 
in whose honor they were assembled. 

Mr. Greeley, the central sun of the occasion, beamed graciously 
upon the company which revolved around him, each one anxious 
to do honor to his white hairs and his worthy career. In one cor- 
ner, General P. H. Jones, Judge Pierrepont, Marshall O. Roberts, 
Judge Frithiau and Moses Grinnell were endeavoring to discern 
the signs of the times in the political horizon. In another, Samuel 
Bowles, George Ripley, and Murat Halstead were discussing the 



HORACE GREELEY. 175 

perils of journalism. Before the mirror, President Barnard and 
the scientifics found a nut to crack. D. D. T. Moore and Gen. 
Franz Sigel, on whose brow time has delved its parallels, are 
bowing before a group of ladies. Governor Morgan's tall form 
and Dr. Chapin's fine presence move through the crowd, adding to 
it additional lustre ; and C. B. Frotbingham, with sinuous grace, 
glides to the side of Mrs. Sinclair, in whom youth and beauty seem 
perpetual, to bask in her bright sunny smiles. Mrs. Lucia Calhoun 
Iiunkle, whose rare womanliness shines through every feature, is 
in animated conversation with Mrs. Laura Curtis Billiard, while 
Mr. Bunkle engages in repartee with the sprightly Miss Nellie 
Hutchinson. Suddenly there was a hush in the room — Miss Emma 
Abbott is going to sing ; the circle widens, and this wild bird from 
the prairies, with its saucy note singing into pathos, steps forth, 
and commences " Auld Lang Syne." As she throws her whole 
soul into the music, Mr. Greeley, so childlike and bland, bent 
upon the floor, murmurs the words to himself, then looks up radi- 
antly, as "With here's a hand my trusty fren," the little songstress 
grasps his hand, and the piquant face smilingly seeks his own, 
when the delighted spectators break into applause, and the busy 
hum recommences. George Ripley is here, the centre of a laughing 
group. "Wm. Creswick, the tragedian, discources with Mrs. J. F. 
Cleveland and Miss Kate Sinclair. Thomas N. Booker, of the 
Tribune, and his wife are engaged with Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert. Dr. 
Sims, the physician of Eugenia, passes with a lady on each arm. 
Frank Leslie occupies a tete-a-tete with Mrs. Ann S. Stephens and 
her daughter. Ludlow Patton and Abby Hutchinson, with her 
sweet expressive face, moves from friend to friend, and Jennie 
June and Mary L. Booth bend their heads together, discussing — 
shall we dare imagine it— the fashions. Edward Eggleston's craggy 
head towers above the crowd with his little wife hanging on his 
arm. Henry M. Field compares notes with Dr. Titus Coan, while 
his wife chats with Richard H. Stoddard. Samuel Sinclair, Jr. 
essays in vain to promenade with the young and fresh Miss Car- 
penter, daughter of the artist. But, hark ! The silence falls again, 
and Miss Margaret Cleveland sings a little air to which every one 
listens attentively. Hunting in couples are Charles F. Wingate, 
" Carlfried," and D. O'C. Townley of the Mail, Amos J. Cum- 
mings, of the Sun, sports about playfully, and Dr. Fuller- Walker is, 
I am afraid, flirting. The galaxy of Tribune beauties, including 
Whitelaw Reid and Colonel John Hay, shine resplendently in immac 
ulate bosoms, black ties, and a simple rosebud on their breasts. Eli 
Perkins is everywhere hunting " statistics." Supper is announced, 
and while its dainties are eagerly availed of by the older portion 



176 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

of the company, the younger are sufficiently frivolous to find 
pleasure in "Les Lanciers," the galop and waltz. 

Who ? Bret Harte ? There he was, sure enough, leaning against 
the door, talking to — whom ? Mark Twain ! Let us draw a veil. 
Emotion so deep cannot be ruthlessly exposed. Star among all the 
women shines Anna Dickinson, before whom old men boAved their 
gray heads with respect and admiration, and around whom young 
men hover, essaying to touch the hem of her garments. 

The handsomest present are L. B. Carpenter and David G. Croly. 
The funniest men and greatest lions Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and 
John Hay ; of course excepting in our menagerie Horace Gree- 
ley, who was the old lion of all. As now approached 

"The witching hour of night 
When churchyards yawn." 

— or what inspires more airs to Saturday night's revelling, such at 
least as were here engaged, — the approach of Sunday morning, 
before twelve, the guests were bidding adieu to their hospitable 
hosts. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, in whose kind care they left Mr. 
Greeley, and by midnight the last participant in one of the most 
distinguished receptions ever in New York, had departed. 

There were no speeches or formality of any kind, but a number 
of letters were read, including the following : 

LETTERS FROM GEO. W. CURTIS. 

Washington, D. C, Jan. 28, 1872. 

Dear Sir: — I am very much obliged by your kind invitation 
to meet Mr. Greeley upon his 61st birthday, and I am very sorry 
that my engagements here will deprive me of that pleasure. 

Mr. Greeley's life has been passed in warm controversy of 
many kinds, and with many persons, but there was probably 
never so much difference with a man accompanied by so little per- 
sonal illwill toward him. The anniversary which you celebrate is 
the fit time to recall his great services to liberty and civilization 
in America ; and the men and brethren who will heartily ac- 
knowledge them are the great multitude of his fellow-citizens. 

Although it may be his 61st birthday, we must not yet speak of 
his old age, for the man whom temperance and the cardinal vir- 
tues befriend will be a vouth at three score and ten. 
Very faithfully yours, 

George William Curtis. 



HORACE GREELEY. 177 

iietter from john g. whittieb. 

aelboro' Hotel. Boston, ) 
Jan. '30, 1872. $ 

Dear Sir : — I am truly sorry that I cannot be with you on the 
interesting occasion your note refers to. I have known Horace 
Greeley for more than thirty years. I have sometimes differed 
with him on public questions, but have never distrusted' him, or 
for a moment doubted his faithfulness to his convictions. That 
on the whole he has been one of our greatest benefactors I have no 
doubt. His Tribune has been a liberal educator. By example 
and precept he has taught lessons of temperance, self-reliance, in- 
dustry, frugality and charity. He has uniformly taken the part 
of the poor, the suffering and enslaved. "Wishing him many more 
years of honorable usefulness, and thanking you for thinking of 
me in connection with the proposed tribute of respect on the occa- 
sion of his birthday, I am yery truly your friend, 

John G. "Whittier. 



LETTER FROM O. W. HOLMES. 

Boston, Jan. 31, 1872. 
Dr. and Mrs. Holmes regret that it is not in their power to ac- 
cept the polite invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson for Saturday 
evening. It would be a great pleasure to meet them and their hon- 
ored guest on an occasion so full of interest. Mr. Greeley has 
reached a "grand climacteric" of deserved reputation, if not quite 
up to that epoch in years. He has made himself felt in journalism 
as one of the great powers of the time., and added a manly element 
to the thought of the people among whom he has passed a life of 
varied activity. If he has ever erred it has been in pursuit of an 
ideal object which it is better to miss than not to aim at. His 
vigor and courage, joined to the thorough humanity of his nature, 
are so generally recognized as worthy of all honor that if Mr. and 
Mrs. Johnson ohould invite all the friends who would be glad to 
pay their respects to him it would have to be an open-air meeting, 
where the warm hearts of a great multitude would find themselves 
doing battle with the cold winds of February, as Mr. Gree- 
ley's enthusiasm has fought against the coldness and indifference 
of a world which he has helped to make warmer, truer, and better 
than he found it. 



12 



ITS LIFE AND CAREER OF 

LETTER FROM SECRETARY FISH. 

"Washington, Feb. 2, 1872. 
Hon. Horace Greeley, N~eio York: 

My Dear Mr. Greeley : — Although unable to accept a kind 
invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Johnson to join them in celebrating 
your 61st birthday, to-morrow, in New York, I may be allowed to 
tender to you my sincere congratulations on the anniversary, and 
very cordially to wish you many returns of the day, and to hope 
your future years may be as happy as those of the past have been 
active and useful. Believe me, very faithfully yours, 

Hamilton Fish. 

letter from president hopkins. 

Williams College, Jan. 29, 1872. 
Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Johnson : — Please accept the thanks oi 
Mr. Hopkins and myself for your invitation to be present at your 
house on the evening of Saturday, the 3d of February, to meet the 
Hon. Horace Greeley. 

You do well to honor Mr. Greeley. He has honored in many 
ways the institutions under which alone he could have come to be 
what he is. We should join you most heartily if my duties did 
not require my presence here. 

Very respectfully yours, 

Mark Hopkins. 

Besides the above, there were also letters read from Prof. E. 
Hitchcock, Prof. H. C. Fisher, Prof. Charles Davies, Rhoda E. 
White, Ray Palmer, Garrit Smith, and J. H. Barrett of the Cincin- 
nati Times and Chronicle. 



HORACE GREELEY. 179 

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. 



the death of a. d. richardson — a card. 

May 2, 1870. 

Certain journals having seen fit to censure the employment of 
what they term "private counsel " in the prosecution of the Mac- 
farland case, and to connect my name therewith, I feel impelled to 
state the facts as they are, which I was forbidden to do upon the 
witness-stand. 

Daniel Macfarland is on trial for the murder of Albert D. Rich- 
ardson. His defense is insanity — the only defense possible in view 
of the conceded facts. Of the merits of that defense, I was not 
called to pronounce as a witness, and I have nothing to say in any 
other capacity. T trust the jury impaneled will render a true ver- 
dict thereon, in the light of all the evidence that may be adduced. 
I have not the faintest wish that they should regard it with levity 
or unfavorable prejudice. Esteeming the hanging of sane men a 
mistake, I should contemplate the hanging of one insane with hor- 
ror. And whether his loss of reason was impelled by truth or 
falsehood makes no difference in the eye of the law. 

My interest in this case centers not in the living, but the dead. 
Albert D. Richardson was my friend. I have traveled and camped 
with him when we were almost alone upon the vast solitudes of 
the Plains, and knew him as brave, generous and noble. I never 
heard any one breathe a whisper to his discredit until this trouble 
rose. That he could be guilty of seducing a wife from her hus- 
band, is contrary to all I ever knew or believed of him. That he 
could deliberately resolve to install a woman known to him as 
lewd aud wanton as the mother of his children, is to me utterly 
incredible. I am sure that the truth which underlies this tragedy 
has not yet been told : at all events is not generally understood. 

Richardson is dead. He cannot speak for himself. His memory 
must be vindicated by the efforts of his surviving friends or not at 
all. And those efforts must be put forth under great disadvan- 
tages. The other story has possession of the public ear. Power- 
ful influences and interests are enlisted in its support. Every 
scoundrel who looks upon woman merely as an instrument of his 
lust, and never aided one in distress except with intent to make 
her his prey, rushes instinctively to the conclusion that Richard- 



180 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

son was a seducer. He -wants no evidence of this but such as he 
finds in his own breast. And every one accustomed to look on a 
wife merely as a species of property, whereof the title cannot be 
alienated by abuse any more than if she were a horse or a dog, 
naturally inclines to the same verdict. 

Anxious only that the whole truth in the premises should be de- 
veloped, and that my deceased friend's memory should be vindi- 
cated from unjust aspersion, I called on the District Attorney, a 
few days before that appointed for the commencement of this 
trial, to ask him if he desired any aid in performing the duty 
assigned him by law. I had not before seen Mr. Garvin since we 
were fellow members of the constitutional convention, and had 
not communicated with him in any manner. In answer to my in- 
quiry, he said he preferred to have an able counsellor associated 
with him in the prosecution, and named Mr. Edwards Pierrepont 
as such counsellor. I called on Mr. Pierrepont accordingly ; but 
he was obliged to try important cases for the government through- 
out April, and could not assign that public duty to another. I re- 
ported that decision to Mr. Garvin, who soon afterward sent me 
word that he wished Judge Noah Davis as his associate. I had 
not suggested either name to Mr. Garvin, nor, indeed, any other. 
I then called at Judge Davis's office, and, not finding him, stated 
the districts attorney's wish to his partner (Judge Henry E. 
Davies), who assured me that, if possible, Mr. Garvin's request 
should be obeyed. 

Such is the history of my agency in this matter. I acted in be- 
half of Mr. Richardson's friends, and at the suggestion of one of 
them residing in his native State. I am sure he would have gladly 
done as much and more for me had it been my fate to be first 
assassinated, then unjustly covered with obloquy, and his to sur- 
vive me. If my efforts shall have contributed, as I now feel con- 
fident they will have done, to vindicate his memory from some 
part of the wrong which has heen done it. I shall rejoice, what- 
ever may be the fate of his destroyer. 

Horace Greeley. 

mr. greeley's religious faith. 

New York, March 22, 1871. 
A week or two ago Mr. "Walter Magonigle, writing from Pitts- 
burg to the Golden Age, concerning Mr. Greeley's contribution 
to this paper, entitled, " Reason in Religion," hoped that the au- 
thor would, in a subsequent article, explain more fully his views of 



HORACE GREELEY. 181 

the rank and function of Jesus Chi'ist — or in other words that Mr. 
Greeley would state definitely whether or not he held "the oi m - 
thodox or Evangelical notion of Christ's divinity, as contradistin- 
guished from the Unitarian view of his humanity." Mr. Magon- 
igle, who wrote from the extreme orthodox point of view, said, 
" To me the most interesting of the many problems connected 
with the Christian religion is the early, bnt still current question, 
' What think ye of Christ ?' " And he added, " The answer which 
Mr. Greeley or any other great man, would give to this ques- 
tion, would awaken a lively interest in my mind." We take for 
granted that not only Mr. Magonigle, hut many other persons will 
read with a lively interest the following statement by Mr. Gree- 
ley, concerning certain points of his religious faith. 

To the Editor of the Golden Age : 

Sir : — I regret that my statement of religious faith, in your first 
issue, proves unsatisfactory to one of your correspondents. One 
of his strangest objections to it seems to be the fact that "a free 
religionist of the Concord type,' professed a willingness to accept 
it. Let us see if that objection may not be overcome. 

I stated that I regarded Jesns of Nazareth as " Son of God and 
Savior of mankind." Mr. Magonigle demurs to this that it 
"leaves untouched the great problem whether, in being man, he 
was or was not also more than a man." That difficulty did not 
previously occur to my mind. I certainly meant, in making my 
statement, to set forth my belief that "the Son of God" was more 
than a man, though less than the self-existent Author of the Uni- 
verse. 

If I use terms that are equivocal and ambiguous, the Evange- 
lists have misled me. When Jesus asked his disciples, "Whom do 
you say that I am ? " Simon Peter answering, said, " Thou art 
Christ, the Son of the living God." Whereupon Jesus blessed 
Peter, "because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee ; but 
my Father, who is in heaven." (Matt. xvi. 15-17.) John declares 
that this Gospel is written, " that you may believe that Jesus is 
the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing you may have life 
in his name." (John xx 31.) And Philip, when asked to make 
profession of his faith, said, " I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son 
of God (Acts viii 37), and was thereupon received into the primi- 
tive church. I think later Christians have erred in attempting to 
make a better creed than this, which satisfied Peter, John and 
Philip, and was especially approved and blessed by Jesus Christ 
himself. (Matt. xvi. 17-20.) 



182 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

I decline to elaborate this creed, which seems to me to be too 
simple to need elucidation, and too clear to justify a charge of 
ambiguity, since Jesus and bis Apostles approved it. I must 
deem it sufficient, even though it should not satisfy Mr. Magon- 
igle. I wish neither to add nor subtract, and no document ever 
seemed to me to stand less in need of a glossary. To my mind, it 
very plainly affirms that Jesus is less than God, yet more than 
man ; and, so far from regretting that I may be deemed unable to 
show precisely why and how he is so, I rest content with what is 
revealed until it shall please God to reveal more. 

Mr. Magonigle sees fit to say that " Mr. Greeley does not be- 
lieve in the orthodox doctrine of future punishment." So much 
the worse for that doctrine. I believe in the Bible doctrine of 
future punishment; and while I am aware that many passages of 
scripture, often quoted as teaching that doctrine, refer to events 
occurring in this world, I hold that punishment for the sins of this 
life may, and often does, extend into the world beyond the grave. 
In fact, I believe that God's government is and must be " the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever," and that wherever sin has existed, 
does exist, or shall exist, there Avill punishment be inflicted. And, 
as many close this life impenitent and steeped in sin, I can not 
doubt that they receive punishment in a future state of being. — 
Golden Age. 

Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 

habits op horace greeley. 

New York Tribune, ) 
New York, May 81, 1871. ) 

Dear Sir : — I know of nothing in my habits that deserves public 
attention. I was formerly called a " Grahamite," that is, I rarely 
ate meat ; and it is still my conviction that meat should be eaten 
very sparingly. I eat, however, like other folks, not having time 
to make myself disagreeable to everybody by insisting on special 
food wherever I go, since I travel much and eat in many places in 
the course of a year. 

I ceased to drink distilled liquors January 1, 1824, when I was 
not yet quite thirteen years old. I occasionally drank beer four or 
five years thereafter, when I abandoned that also. I cannot re- 
member that I ever more than tasted wine. 

I stopped drinking coffee about 1834, because it made my hand 
tremble. 



HORACE GREELEY. 183 

I did not drink tea for a quarter of a century, ending in 1861, 
when I had brain fever and was very ill. My doctor insisted that 
I should drink either claret or tea, and I chose the tea, which 
(black) I have generally used since, though not uniformly. 

My favorite exercise is trimming up trees in a forest with an 
axe, cutting out underbrush, &c. I wish I could take more of it, 
but my farm is distant and my family scattered. I sometimes lift 
weights at the Lifting Cure. I have only lifted 265 pounds since I 
became sixty years old, February 3d last. 

Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 

J. A. Beecher, Esq., Trenton, N. J. 

A CARD. 

New York, Nov. 2, 1870. 
To the Electors of the IXth, XVth, and XVIth Wards : 

Fellow Citizens : — 1 am advised that I have been unani- 
mously agreed upon as a candidate for your suffrages by two 
wholly independent nominating conventions, by which it has not 
been found practicable to unite upon any one else. Up to a late 
hour, I had hoped that a different result would be attained ; but 
this is ho longer probable. That I have nowise sought the position 
thus assigned me, you already know ; but I cheerfully accept it. 
Infirm health, if no other consideration, must preclude my going 
among you to solicit your suffrages, and I shall make no novel 
professions or pledges in the hope of thereby commending myself 
to your favor. Wishing you to understand distinctly that any one 
who may seek to promote my election by personal attacks upon 
or abusive tirades against my competitor will thereby subject him- 
self to my most emphatic rebuke and reprehension, I will only add 
that, should it be your ploasure that 1 represeut you in the next 
Congress, I will do so to the best of my ability. 

Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 

horace greeley and the presidency. 

Leavenworth City, Kan., April 29. 
The Hon. Horace Greeley : 

Dear Sir : — Your many friends in Kansas desire to have your 
views in relation to your name being brought before the next 
National Eepublican Convention in 1872 for nomination for Presi- 



184 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

dent. Without any disrespect to Gen. Grant, we believe that no 
living American statesman has the claims of yourself for Presi- 
dent. Very respectfully, your friend, 

Wm. Larimer. 
— Leavenworth, Kansas, Times, May 28. 

New York, Tribune Office, May 4. 
My Dear Sir : — I have yours of the 29th, asking pointed ques- 
tions with regard to our political future. I must respond in great 
haste. I trust never henceforth to be an aspirant for any office or 
political position whatever; but I fully purpose, also, never to de- 
cline any duty or responsibility which my political friends shall 
see fit to devolve upon me, and of which I shall be able to fulfill 
the obligations without neglecting older or more imperative 
duties. I have not yet formed a decided opinion as to the man 
who ought to be our next Republican caudidate for President, but 
it seems to me advisable that he should be a steadfast, consistent 
believer in the good old Whig doctrine of One Presidential Term. 

Horace Greeley. 

address of mr. greeley at the celebration of the 
franklin statue, on printing house square. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Press and Typo- 
graphic Profession : — A statue of Franklin was suggested by 
one of our craft as appropriate to be inaugurated in this great 
city, which has become the emporium of American journalism and 
of American book-publishing. It seems to him desirable and 
proper that the printers and publishers of the city of New York 
should testify their regard for the man whom we all esteem as a 
patriot, a sage, and the chief honor of our calling, by presenting 
some visible embodiment of him to the admiration and apprecia- 
tion of our fellow citizens. This suggestion was made to Capt. 
Albert DeGroot, who, as he says, in acknowledgment of the many 
favors he has received from the press of the city, resolved himself 
to be the originator of this statue, and thus the benefactor of our 
calling. Capt. DeGroot conferred with Mr. Ernst Plassmann, a 
distinguished sculptor of our city, and employed him to put his 
idea into enduring material. Plassmann made first a smaller 
model of the figure of Franklin, which he submitted for weeks to 
the judgment of capable and judicious critics of art. It was then 
cast in a larger mold and again submitted to the criticism of the 
judicious and the capable ; and from their suggestions, correcting 
and improving his own idea, was made the final model of which 



HORACE GREELEY. 185 

you now see the enduring representative before you. Having thus 
prepared the model, he proceeded to have it cast in bronze, and 
soou found that there was not in America proper facilities for 
casting a statue so majestic as this. A new building was pro- 
vided, and from this new building has been completed and pre- 
sented this Statue, which now in his behalf I am enabled to present 
to you, gentlemen of the Press, and of the typographic art. [Ap- 
plause.] 

I rejoice that this work is, like its subject, purely American. It 
may be that European art is able at this stage to have produced a 
better one — though I think not. [Laughter.] But, at all events, 
the production of this, is our warrant for believing, that if better 
statues can be created, we have by this example — by this achieve- 
ment — prepared our countrymen to produce them in a future not 
distant. [Applause.] I rejoice, fellow-citizens, that, while pre- 
senting an American statue of an American plilosopher, the gift 
of a public-spirited American citizen, we have been assisted to-day 
in inaugurating this statue by that eminent American discoverer, 
who to-day is the nearest resemblance to the great and patriotic 
citizen, whose memory we all honor. I rejoice that Prof. Morse — 
born in that very city of Boston, within rifle-shot of Franklin's 
birth-place, and the year after Franklin died, and who seems to 
have been raised up by Providence to be the continuer of that 
great work of which Franklin was the beginner — I rejoice that he 
has been spared to meet with us on this interesting occasion. 
This man seems to me to be the proper successor of Franklin ; the 
one taught the world how to tame the lightning, and the other has 
taught us how to render it most useful as a messenger of intelli- 
gence across continents and oceans ; so that to-day, by the inven- 
tion of Morse, the whole world is placed in instantaneous com- 
munication, and any interesting event is flashed as by the light- 
ning from one end of the habitable globe to the other. So I may 
say, fellow-citizens, in honor of Franklin, and I may also say in 
honor of Morse, 1 present, in behalf of Capt. DeGroot, this statue 
of our great exemplar to our intelligent and, I trust, appreciative 
profession. 

ADDBESS BY MB. GBEEEEY AT THE BANQUET. 

Mb. Chaieman and Gentlemen : — If I were required to say 
for which of Franklin's achievements he deserved most and best 
of mankind, I should award the palm to his autobiography — so 
frank, so sunny, so irradiated by a brave, blithe, hearty humanity. 
For if our fathers had not — largely by the aid of his counsel, his 



186 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

labors, his sacrifices — achieved their independence at the first 
effort, they would have tried it again and again until they did 
achieve it ; if he had not made his immortal discovery of the iden- 
tity of lectricity with the lightning, that truth would nevertheless 
have at length been demonstrated ; but if he had not so modestly 
and sweetly told us how to wrestle Avith poverty and compel op- 
portunity, I do not know who beside would or could have done it 
so well. There is not to-day, there will not be in this nor in the 
next century, a friendless, humble orphan, working hard for naked 
daily bread, and glad to improve his leisure hours in the corner of 
a garret, whom that biography will not cheer and strengthen to 
fight the battle of life buoyantly and manfully. I wish some 
human Tract Society would present a copy of it to every poor lad 
in the United States. 

But I must not detain you. Let me sum up the character of 
Franklin in the fewest words that will serve me. I love and re- 
vere him as a journeyman printer, who was frugal and didn't 
drink ; & parvenu who rose from want to competence, from ob- 
scurity to fame, without losing his head ; a statesman who did not 
crucify mankind with long-winded documents or speeches ; a dip- 
lomatist who did not intrigue ; a philosopher who never loved, 
and an office-holder who didn't steal. So regarding him, I respond 
to your sentiment with "Honor to the memory of Franklin." 



POLITICAL DISCUSSION. 



Pending the presidential campaign: — 1872 — Mr. Greeley, for 
the purpose of stimulating the people to throw off the bondage of 
political conventions, published three significant editorials in the 
Tribune as follows : 

"says the spider to the fly.'' 

The facts that the Editor of this Journal did not attend the late 
meeting of the Republican National Committee at Washington, and 
did not sign the call issued therefrom for a National Convention 
to meet in Philadelphia in June next, have been widely commented 
on. The letter in which Mr. Greeley declined to sign that call 
has been called for by several journals, but not given. He kept no 
copy of it, and cannot recall its language; but Mr. "W. E. Chan- 



HORACE GREELEY. 187 

diet, to whom it was addressed, is fully authorized to give a copy- 
to any one who may see fit to ask him for it. 

And now a few words on the general subject : 

It may surprise many to he told that National Nominating Con- 
ventions are of modern origin. The founders of our Republic, the 
men who made and ratified the Federal Constitution, contrived to 
get on without them. A Pennsylvania Dutchman is said to have 
excused his inability to answer a question as to his course at the 
pending election, by stating that " The man who tells ns how to 
vote has not been around this Fall. " Our fathers appear to 
have been left in that benighted condition throughout the 
twenty years which immediately followed the formation of our 
" more perfect Union. " Considering their lack of our larger and 
more abundant newspapers, our overland and under-water tele- 
graphs, and our admirable provision for providing them with 
ready-made candidates, they got on surprisingly well, however ; 
the Presidents they thus elected have been George Washington, 
John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. 

At length the dominant party, then known as Republican, 
devised the expedient of a caucus of its Members of Congress to 
designate candidates for the highest Federal offices. As we recol- 
lect, the first of these assembled to designate a Vice-President only 
— George Clinton, to run with President Jefferson in 1804, vice 
Aaron Burr, fallen from grace. The thin end of the wedge having 
thus been inserted, candidates for President also were afterward 
presented — the caucus dutifully naming for the higher office 
whomsoever the outgoing President had chosen as his Secretary of 
State. 

In 1824, there was a New Departure. William H. Crawford, ol 
Georgia, then Secretary of the Treasury, who had just missed a 
nomination eight years previously in place of James Monroe ( a 
man of quite inferior capacity ), was now presented by the caucus 
for President, with Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, for Vice- 
President. 

The masses revolted. So long as the Federal party had remained 
embodied, they had supported — not without occasional grum- 
bling—the Republican caucus candidates ; now that the Federalists 
had dropped out of the arena, they saw no reason for being 
restricted to the caucus programme. Pennsylvania, Kentuckj r , 
Tennessee, and several other States which had hitherto swallowed 
the caucus nominees without a grimaee, now gave them no coixn- 
tenance whatever. Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Cal- 
houn and John Ouincy Adams — the two former Republican mem- 



188 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

bers of Congress; the two latter Republican members of President 
Monroe's Cabinet — became candidates for President in defiance of 
the caucus. Mr. Calhoun finally withdrew, and received the votes 
of nearly all the anti-caucus men for Vice-President, whereby he 
was overwhelmingly elected. The others ran the race through; 
Gen. Jackson receiving the electoral votes of most of the Southern 
and Western States ; Mr. Adams those of all the Eastern States; 
Mr. Clay being supported by Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, and a few 
of the New York Electors ; Mr. Crawford having the votes of 
Virginia, 2 of the 3 votes of Delaware (an inveterately Federal 
State ), Georgia, and a few of the New York votes. This sent the 
election to the House of Representatives, wherein Jackson, Adams 
and Crawford ( the three highest in the electoral colleges) were 
the only constitutional candidates. Mr. Clay and his supporters 
here cast ther votes for Mr. Adams and elected him — he having 
the votes of 13 States, while 7 voted for Jackson and 4 for 
Crawford. 

That result gave a deat-blow to caucuses of Members of Con- 
gress to nominate candidates to be supported by the People. Mr. 
Adams and (Jen. Jackson were the rival candidates for President 
at the next election, but they were the nominees of no Congress 
caucus and no National Convention. 

In 1836, the Jackson Democratic party held the first National 
Convention. Its object was to concentrate the party upon Martin 
Van Buren for President — he being obnoxious to a considerable 
part of it. Pennsylvania had in 1832 refused him her votes for 
Vice-President, casting them for William Wilkins. Several States 
neglected or refused to send delegates to this first National Con- 
vention; Among them Gen. Jackson's own Tennessee; but a 
steam-doctor named Rucker, hailing from Tennessee, happened to 
be in Baltimore at the time; so he was caught up and transmitted 
into a delegation from his State. 

No rival National Convention was held ; but the "Whigs of the 
Free States generally supported Gen. William Henry Harrison, of 
Ohio, for President, with Francis Granger, of New York, for Vice- 
President. Those of the South voted for Hugh L. White, of Ten- 
nessee, for President, with John Tyler, of Virginia, for Vice-Pres- 
ident. South Carolina voted for W. P. Magnum, and North Car- 
olina for Van Buren. Massachusetts voted alone for Daniel Web- 
ster for President. Van Buren was chosen President — New York 
and Pennsylvania voting for him — but Richard M. Johnson, Vice- 
President on the same ticket, failed to secure a majority of Elec- 
tors — Virginia refusing him her votes, because of his alleged pro- 



HORACE GREELEY. 189 

clivity to amalgamation. The Senate, however, elected him by 33 
votes to 16 for Francis Granger ( only the highest two beiDg here 
eligible.) 

-More of this in our next— .Fed. 20, 1872. 

MORE ABOUT PRESIDENT-MAKING MACHINERY. 

Ill December, 1839, the first National Convention ever held by 
the Whig party assembled at Harrisburg, Pa. Hoav it was called, 
we do not remember ; there was no pre-existing National Com- 
mittee or other organization. About two hundred delegates 
attended, including ex-Governors of eight or ten States — among 
them James Barbour ( who presided ) and John Tyler, of Virginia, 
Joseph Vance, of Ohio, and Thomas Metcalf, of Kentucky. Gov. 
Ritner and ex-Gov. Shultze, of Pa., were, if not members, deeply 
interested spectators. The Convention was at least three days in 
making a nomination. A plurality of its members wanted to nom- 
inate for President, Henry Clay, whom three-fourths of the party 
preferred for that office ; the greater number of delegates, fearing 
that Mr. Clay, if nominated, could not be elected, voted for Gen. 
Harrison or Gen. Scott, and ultimately united on the former, giv- 
ing him the nomination. Ex-Gov. Tyler, of Virginia, who was a 
zealous supporter of Clay, was nominated for Vice-President. 
The "Whig ticket for 1840 was thus made up of the candidate for 
President spontaneously supported by the Northern AVhigs in 
1836, with the candidate of the Southern Whigs in that year for 
Vice-President. This was unquestionably the strongest combina- 
tion that could have been made, as the event proved. No plat- 
form or declaration of principles was put forth. The Democrats 
met some months later at Baltimore, and renominated Van Buren 
and Johnson. After an animated, ringing canvass, Harrison and 
Tyler were chosen by 234 Electoral Votes to 60 — only seven States 
(including Virginia, the birth-place of Harrison and Tyler, Clay 
and Gen. Scott ) casting their votes for Van Buren. 

In L844, a Whig National Convention assembled at Baltimore, 
May 1, and unanimously nominated Henry Clay for President. 
Theo. Frelinghuysen was, after a spirited contest, nominated for 
Vice-President. The Convention unanimously pronounced for 
Protection to Home Industry and against the re-election of a Pres- 
ident while in office. 

The Democratic Convention met in the same city some weeks 
afterward. A majority of the delegates thereto had been elected 
to re-nominate Van Buren, and voted for him on the first ballot, 



190 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

after adopting a rule which required a concurrence of -two-thirds 
of the delegates to make a nomination. They gradually fell away 
from Van Bnren to Cass, Buchanan and others, until at length 
James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was proposed and speedily nomina- 
ted. Silas Wright, of New York, was nominated for Vice-Presi- 
dent, but promptly declined, when George M. Dallas, of Pennsyl- 
vania, was presented in his stead. 

After a most spirited and energetic canvass, Polk and Dallas 
were elected, having carried Pennsylvania, New York and Louis- 
iana by very small majorities — secured, as the "Whigs asserted and 
believed, by fraudulent votes. A change of New York alone 
would have elected Clay. 

In 1848, the Democrats nominated Gen. Lewis Cass, of Michi- 
gan, for President, with William O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Vice- 
President. 

The Whig Convention met this year in Philadelphia. No can- 
didate had at first a majority, but Gen. Zachary Taylor, of Louis- 
iana, had a plurality, which ultimately grew into a majority and 
nominated him. Millard Fillmore, of New York, was nominated 
for Vice-President. This ticket was elected by the support of 
New York and Pennsylvania, Ohio and every other State north- 
west of the Ohio river going for Cass. Van Buren and C. Francis 
Adams were supported by the "Free Soil'' party, which thus con- 
tributed to the defeat of Cass and Butler. 

In 1852, the Whigs again held a Convention at Baltimore, and, 
after a good many ballots, nominated Gen. Winrield Scott for 
President over Millard Fillmore (incumbent since Gen. Taylor's 
death) and Daniel Webster. William A. Graham, of North Caro- 
lina was nominated for Vice-President. 

The Democrats nominated Gen. Franklin Pierce, of New Hamp- 
shire, for President, and the Hon. AVilliam R. King, of Alabama, 
for Vice-President. This ticket was triumphantly elected ; the 
Free-Soilers supporting John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, for 
President, and thus divided the vote of several Free States, with- 
out choosing any Electors. Gen. Scott Avas supported by the States 
Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee only — all the 
rest for Pierce. 

In 1856, the Democrats nominated James Buchanan for Presi- 
dent over Franklin Pierce (incumbent) and Stephen A. Douglas. 
John C. Breckinridge, of Ky., was their man for Vice-President. 
The "Republicans" nominated John C. Fremont for President, 
with William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, for Vice-President. The 
"Americans" ran Millard Fillmore for President with Andrew J. 



HORACE GREELEY. 191 

Donelson, of Term., for Vice President, polling a considerable vote 
in a majority of the States, but carrying- Maryland only. Buchanan 
and Breckinridge were elected, but Fremont and Dayton carried 
11 States, giving them 114 Electoral Votes. Of course none of 
these were Slave States. 

In 1860, the Republicans met at Chicago and, after an animated 
struggle, nominated Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, for President, 
with Hannibal Hamlin, of Main, for Vice. President, though Will- 
iam H. Seward, of New York, had the highest vote for Presi- 
dent on the first ballot. 

The Democrats held their Convention this year at Charleston, 
S. C, but quarreled savagely and adjourned to Baltimore, being 
unable to concentrate a two-thirds vote upon any one. At Balti- 
more, Stephen A.Douglas was nominated for President by the larger 
division, withBenj. Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, for Vice. Fitzpatrick 
declined, and Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, was substituted. 
The more Southern wing of the Democracy nominated John C. 
Breckinridge, for President, with Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for 
Vice. The "Americans" of 1856 now declared themselves a 
"Union" party and presented John Bell, of Tennessee, for Presi- 
dent, with Edward Everett, of Mass., for Vice-President. All 
three of the factions opposed to the Republicans coalesced on a 
common Electoral ticket in New York, and less completely in other 
States, but Lincoln and Hamlin were elected, receiving all the 
Electoral Votes of the Free States but three of the seven cast by 
New Jersey. Douglas obtained those three and Missouri's 9 — 12 
in all. Bell had those of Virginia, Breckinridge those of all the 
other Slave States but Missouri. 

In 1864, the Republicans convened at Baltimore and renomina- 
ted President Lincoln, with Andrew Johnson (War Democrat) of 
Tennessee, for Vice-President. The Democrats went to Chicago, 
and there nominated Gen. Geo. B. McClellan for President, with 
Geo. W. Pendleton, of Ohio, for Vice. The States then in revolt 
not voting, Lincoln carried all the rest except New Jersey, Ken- 
tucky, and Delaware. 

In 1868, the Republicans met again at Chicago, and there nomin- 
ated Gen. Ulysses S. Grant for President with Schuyler Colfax for 
Vice. The Democrats met in New York, and put up Horatio Sey- 
more for President with Gen. Francis P. Blair of Missouri for 
Vice. These candidates received the votes of New York, New 
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, and 
Oregon, but were badly beaten. The States of Virginia, Missis- 
sippi, and Texas, being not yet fully reconstructed, did not vote. 



192 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

— We have some comments to make on the foregoing facts, 
which we must reserve till our next. — Feb. 2\st, 1872. 

PKESIDENTIAD NOMINATIONS CONCLUDED. 

It has been objected to National Conventions, as it was to cau- 
cuses of Congress before them, that they are usurpations. Orators 
have triumphantly asked to be shown any warrant in the Federal 
Constitution for holding them. It were as reasonable to ask for a 
clause in that instrument authoring the spanning of oceans by tel- 
egraphic cables. Caucuses and Conventions of this class are simply 
voluntary assemblages of people for certain purposes, avowed or 
otherwise, as the case may be. They have no legal or binding 
authority, and pretend to none. If you choose to subscribe to the 
platform, and vote for the candidates of one of them, you may ; 
if you prefer to support the candidates and spurn the platform, or 
to approve generally the principles avowed, and not vote for the 
candidates, that course is open to you. The nominating conven- 
tion at best puts up a guide-board, whose direction? you are at 
perfect liberty to consult or ignore, heed or disregard. 

It is undoubtedly true that either caucus or convention increases 
the weight of the great States in our National councils. New York 
and Pennsylvania, when they choose to coalesce, can all but dictate 
the nomination of their favorite for President, and secure his elec- 
tion. We believe they have never yet been overborne, when acting 
together, in a Presidential canvass. Joined by Ohio, they must 
prove quite irresistible. So it is obvious that the power of the 
Federal Government is augmented by the holding of National Con- 
ventions to select candidates for the Presidency. Some may regret, 
while others will rejoice over this ; the fact remaining unaffected 
by their hopes or fears. 

When party lines are tightly drawn and great principles or even 
interests are at stake, the nominating convention or caucus will 
naturally be authoritative — commanding ; when a lull in political 
controversy occurs, through the virtual settlement or decadence 
of such issues, then the masses will be likely to revolt, as they did 
in 1824. Nominations by delegated bodies are at best an evil, some- 
times to be endured in preference to the evils thereby precluded. 
Had it been possible to adhere to the design of the founders of the 
Republic, by choosing in each State its proportion of the Presiden- 
tial Electors from among the ablest, wisest, worthiest citizens, and 
having them assemble, deliberate, compare preferences, weigh each 
other's suggestions, and then vote for the two fittest men residing 



HORACE GREELEY. 193 

in different States, whereof he who should receive most votes 
throughout the Union should be President, he who received next 
to the largest number Vice-President, that would have continued 
to be an excellent system, as, in the infancy of the Union, it proved. 
The power which the Constitution intended to vest in the Electors 
has been transferred to caucuses and nominating conventions, 
State and Federal — unwisely, if you will, but it seems irrevocably. 
The best course still open is that of independent, earnest, manly 
criticism and revision by the people of the acts and decisions of 
whatever body or bodies shall henceforth assnme to provide them 
with ready-made candidates, whether for Federal or for State offi- 
ces. Treat all nominations simply as suggestions, to be followed 
or resisted as your own judgment shall dictate. A caucus of 
Members of Congress formerly made (in effect) both President and 
Vice-President : that power was abused, and the people set their 
heel upon it. National Conventions will doubtless in good time 
travel the same road and encounter a kindred fate. Meantime, 
hear and heed all proper suggestions of candidates, then vote 
exactly as your own unfettered judgment shall dictate. — Feb. 22, 
1872. 

ORGANS AND THEIR MUSIC 

We have noticed some discussion in other journals as to the 
merits, or rather the staunchness, of the Tribune as a party organ 
— whether it has been, or may confidently be expected to be, "relia- 
ble," to use a word of dubious propriety. We desire to help the 
negative in this controversy. 

The Tribune was designed to be something quite different from 
a party organ, as organs go in this country. It was meant to dis- 
cuss political as well as other questions of general interest with 
entire freedom and frankness — to commend whatever its Editor 
should believe to be right, and condemn whatever appeared to him 
wrong, without regard to the party affiliations of the doer. It 
was intended to be as indebendent of office-holding and of office- 
seeking control as the Times (London) or any of the great Euro- 
pean journals, none of which ever subserved a party with the 
docility (not to say servility) often exhibited on this side of the 
Atlantic. 

But, soon after the establishment of this journal, the country 
was plunged into a controversy respecting the contrasted merits 
of Protection and Free Trade ; and the Editor— an ardent, devoted 
Protectionist from boyhood— rushed instinctively into the thickest 
of the fight. It was not in his nature to do otherwise. 
13 



194 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

When Henry Clay was superseded by Gen. Taylor in 1848, in a 
Convention which laid Free Soil on the table, the Tribune did not 
behave like a good party organ. It told truth that the party did 
not relish, and did not hurry itself in taking ground for Gen. 
Taylor. A good many people liked it less for this ; but we believe 
they respected it more. 

Again in 1852, when Gen. Scott was nominated for President on 
a Slavery-Compromise platform, it accepted the candidate, but 
emphatically spurned the platform. A good party organ would 
have swallowed the platform at the first gulp, and pretended to 
like it. 

In 1854, there was a New Departure. A startling and tempo- 
rarily successful eftbrt was made to open to Slavery territory 
which had been solemnly consecrated to Free Labor. Again the 
Tribune stepped to the front, and did its best in opposition to 
what it deemed a perfidious crime, till that issue was forever 
settled. 

Still, it did not earn the reputation of a staunch, "reliable" party 
organ. When the Republicans of Illinois undertook to turn 
Stephen A. Douglas out of the Senate in 1858, just after his mag- 
nificent and successful fight against binding Kansas over to Slavery 
under the fraudulent Lecompton Constitution, the Tribune 
thought they Avere wrong, and, thinking, said so. A genuine 
party organ would not have thought at all, or thinking so, would 
have said the opposite. 

Again in 1860, the Republican Legislature of our State passed 
several bills for Horse Railroads in our city, collectively known as 
"the Gridiron." The Tribune was not content with opposing 
those bills to the utmost; it paraded the names of those whose 
votes passed the lot, and exhorted its readers to beat any of them 
who should presume to stand for re-election. Several of them 
xoere beaten in consequence, and the party machinery consider- 
ably deranged. That is not the sort of music expected from party 
organs. 

Enough for this time. It is plain that they are right who insist 
that the Tribune is not a "reliable" party organ. We presume it 
never was; but, if it ever has deen, Ave are determined that it 
shall not be hereafter. — March 1, '72. 

The appearance of the above articles in the Tribune, called 
out a wide discussion in the public press of the country, the char- 
acter of which is indicated by a few extracts, as follows : 



HORACE GREELEY. 195 

THE USE AND ABUSE OF CONVENTIONS — NATIONAL. CONVEN- 
TIONS. 

Mr. Greeley, in his recent articles on the system of selecting 
Presidents by National Conventions, points out its novelty in 
point of time, and predicts that it will, at some time, be abolished. 
The National Convention, as opposed to the Congressional caucus, 
was a Democratic idea. It was started by the Democratic party 
in 1836, and reluctantly fallen into by the Whig party four years 
later. It was popular with the Democratic masses, because it flat- 
tered them with the notion that it transferred the power of nom- 
inating a President from the few and gave it to the many — a catch- 
word that never failed to raise the " hip, hip, hurrahs " of the un- 
terrifled, from Jackson's time to Buchanan's. 

The unterrified never seemed to discover that it is a numerical 
impossibility for forty millions of people to meet in one assem- 
blage, and thus carry out the idea of " the many" nominating a can- 
didate. Failing to perceive this, they forgot that, if two or three 
hundred delegates in a Convention nominated a President, he was 
as really nominated by " the few " as if a similar number of Con- 
gressmen nominated him, or as if the Electoral Colleges voted 
without any nomination. Under the pretence, therefore, of 
transferring the power of choice from the few to the many, it Avas 
trken from the few who were intended by the Constitution and 
empowered by its letter to make it, and was transferred to a num- 
ber equally " few," but who are chosen without any of the forms 
of law ; who purport only to represent one political party, and 
are, in fact, never voted for by one-tenth of the voters of that 
party ; who act without an oath of any official responsibility, and 
who may sell their votes, secretly or openly, without violating 
any law whatever. 

Under pretence of taking the selection of the Presidential candi- 
date from the "few" and giving it to the "many," the "few" 
irresponsible, unsworn, and unofficial politicians, who meet in a 
Convention, determine, out of forty millions of people, who shall 
be voted for, and leave to the "many" the privilege of voting for 
him or nobody. The power and participation of the people in the 
choice is far less than it would be if no Convention were held and 
no nomination made. For, in that case, the whole people would 
vote for the electors, who, according to their own discretion, 
choose the President. But, under the Convention system, only a 
few of the voters of one party ever vote for delegates to the Con- 
vention that makes the nomination, the mass of the voters of that 



196 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

party not attending, and all the voters of the other party or par- 
ties being excluded. While the " many " do not participate in 
electing delegates to the Convention, or in its deliberations or 
or choice, neither can they, under the Convention system, have 
any power on election day to choose the President. For the Con- 
ventions have already limited the choice to two candidates, and of 
these the "many " must vote for one or the other, and these are 
generally so identified with certain principles or measures that the 
voter believing in the principles of one party has his last vestige 
of choice taken away, and must vote for the nominee of the Con- 
vention of that party. As to men, therefore, he has no more choice 
than Louis Napoleon gave his subjects — to vote for him or for 
nobody. 

Now, while, under any representative system, forty millions of 
people can only choose a candidate for the Presidency by dele- 
gated votes, the difference between the Convention and the Elec- 
toral College intended by the Constitution is, that in the latter the 
delegated votes would be cast by men whom the whole people had 
a chance to vote for, and whom the majority did vote for ; while, 
under the Convention system, they would be cast by men whom 
only one political party are permitted to vote for, and for whom, 
in fact, very few of that party ever voted. Certainly, the " many" 
are far better represented under the Electoral College system, as 
devised by the framers of the Constitution, than under the Con- 
vention system, substituted thirty years ago by Van Buren and 
Company. 

Another evil of the convention system is, that no amount of bal- 
lot-stuffing, fraudulent or forcible voting, or buying and selling of 
votes, either in the primaries or political Conventions of any 
grade, is punishable by law. There have been Conventions for 
nominating candidates for Congress wherein as high at $50,000 
have been spent in buying votes for one nomination. Corruption 
has for fifty years been gradually creeping upward from the lower 
haunts of politics to the higher. Several recent National Conven- 
tions have been disgraced by it. Our State Conventions are fre- 
quently afflicted with it. If our national nominating system con- 
tinues, it cannot be long before the great capitalists, railroads, and 
other corporations will be found buying up whole States, like 
shep in the shambles, and all the more disgracefully because the 
law cannot punish it as a crime. 

We are not sure that it would be wise to attempt at present to 
abolish the Convention system, but we think in at least well to 
discuss whether the spirit of the constitution is not perpetually 



HORACE GREELEY. 197 

trampled on by that system. The question will be asked, conced- 
ing the evils of the convention system, how is it to be assailed ? 
The first step would be to run an electoral ticket in every State, 
pledged to vote independently, according to the constitution, for 
such men as the electors deemed best qualified to hold the offices 
of President and Vice President of the United States. The advan- 
tage of this system would be, that the electors who would thus be 
chosen would be men of weight, character, and reputation, most 
of whom would know personally much about the Presidential can- 
didates for whom they are voting, and acting under a sense of 
official responsibility, they would be less open to corruption. Of 
course, any change of this kind is remote ; but it is well to recall 
the fact that the first practice of the country after the adoption of 
the constitution was diametrically opposed to the present system. 
— Chicago Tribune, Feb. 28. 

SWEEPING AWAY PARTY TACTICS. 

All argument against National Conventions for making Presi- 
dential nominations is an argument against all party conventions, 
all party caucussing — all methods, in fact, of organizing and unit- 
ing the action of political parties. It is plain enough that parties 
cannot exist without these agencies of concentration in some form, 
either democratically evolved from within themselves, or estab- 
lished over them by the usurpation of self-constituted leaders. — 
Buffalo Express. 

THE ONLY WAY TO ESCAPE POLITICAL TYRANNY. 

" Mr. Greeley's position and doctrine seem to us to be fraught 
with hopes of salutary results to the country. It will serve to 
break the organized power of a most corrupt party, and through 
independence of action make it possible to inaugurate progress 
and true reform. It may lead, however, to a higher standard of 
political action, and to the destruction of that tyranny of party 
managers which, with the aid of money, patronage and reckless 
legislation, has been so odious during the past twelve years." — 
Buffalo Courier. 

UNAUTHORIZED BY THE PEOPLE. 

Thus the practical election of President is done by machinery 
entirely unknown to the law, the agents in which are unauthor- 
ized by the Constitution, act without the sanction of an oath or 



198 LIFE AND CAREER OP 

official responsibility, and among whom bribery is not punishable. 
Indeed the Presidential Elector who should to-day substitute his 
personal convictions for the nomination of a Convention, and thus 
acted in the true spirit and intent of his oatli and of the Constitu- 
tion, would probably be deemed a greater recreant and traitor 
than if he had plotted the overthrow of the Government. — Chicago 
Tribune. 

CANDIDATES RESPONSIBLE TO WIRE-PULLERS AND NOT TO 
THE PEOPLE. 

In an elective system like our own, political parties are a neces- 
sity. But the party implies organization, and consent not only to 
certain principles, but in the action for giving them effect. This, 
again, requires no little concession of individual preference, and 
an absolute submission to the will of the party majority in all mat- 
ters not vitally connected with one's moral convictions. Espec- 
ially is it a breach of faith and fealty for a politician, having gone 
before a party convention to secure a nomination for himself or 
his favorite candidate, and failed, to bolt on personal grounds the 
nomination actually made. In entering a political nominating 
convention, there is an implied contract between all parties to it 
to abide the result. — Cleveland Leader. 

THE GAG SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED. 

Without toleration of conflicting opinion and action, without a 
generous consideration of the preferences of men who have stood 
by the party from its organization, the success of the party will 
be greatly endangered. The party lash cannot be successfully 
used over Republicans, nor will the gag be tolerated. These 
things may be used for a time without defeating the party, but 
they will prove the inevitable ruin of it in the end. The power of 
public patronage may accomplish wonders for a time, but there is 
a very large element in the Republican part}' that cares not for 
office or official favor, and when once aroused will sweep such 
things away as rubbish when compared with the success of prin- 
ciples and a wise policy. — Milwaukee Wisconsin. 

THE SACRED RIGHT OF BOLTING. 

Mr. Greeley has been printing a series of interesting articles 
in the Tribune on national conventions for nominating candidates 
for the Presidency. He gives a history of the manner in which 



HORACE GREELEY. 199 

Presidential nominations have been made from the beginning— at 
first by common consent, then by Congressional caucuses, and 
since 1886 by national conventions, and leaves the impression that 
he considers that the country has now outgrown the Convention 
plan and ought to have something better. A great many persons, 
we apprehend, will share Mr. Greeley's disgust at nominating 
conventions, whether national or on a smaller scale, but nobody 
has yet offered us anything superior. Even Mr. Greeley fur- 
nishes no suggestion on this point, and it is likely that nominating 
conventions will be held for a good many years yet. If they make 
bad nominations there always remains to the individual the sacred 
right of bolting. — Springfield Republican. 



THE ONE TERM PRINCIPLE. 



Realizing that ambition is an impelling principle in human 
nature, which, in the main, knows no law of justice or honor, and 
is indifferent to the welfare of the people, when power is possible ; 
wise statesmen in all ages of the world, have warned their coun- 
trymen against the unscrupulous efforts of ambitious rulers, and 
sought, by positive laws, to restrain their reckless efforts for the 
ascendency. 

Knowing the temptations which the presidency of this Republic 
affords to satiate the ambition of selfish men ; many good and 
great statesmen have earnestly contended that the office of the 
President should be restricted to one term. 

At the head of these unselfish and earnest advocates of the 
"One Term Principle" stands Mr. Greeley. His recent discus- 
sion of the subject, has truly made him the champion of the 
cause, and endeared him to the American people for the high 
ground he has taken. His principal argument on the subject is 
herewith presented. It will be found full of interest as well as 
thoroughly convincing to every American patriot. 

A very earnest and growing solicitude for Civil Service Reform 
pervades the more intelligent and thoughtful minority of our 
countrymen. Its praises are seldom sounded in the grog-shops ; 



200 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

its merits are not appreciated by the lower order of ward and 
cross-roads politicians. Many of these apprehend from its triumph 
a diminution of their personal consequence ; and not wholly with- 
out reason. The packers and managers of county and district 
conventions also dislike it; they do not see how they are to pay 
for services required and rendered, if that Reform shall ever be 
really effected. To those, on the other hand, who seek first good 
government, through capable, efficient and frugal public servants, 
the agitation of this Reform is a bow of promise, and its achieve- 
ment would be hailed with unalloyed and heartfelt satisfaction. 

What does this Reform contemplate ? 

Primarily, the selection for offices of those best fitted therefor, 
and whose intelligent and faithful discharge of their duties may be 
confidently anticipated. At present, we are all aware that fitness 
is and must be a secondary, if not even remoter, consideration. A 
President or Governor, who was nominated because it was calcu- 
lated that he would run well, having been duly (or wwduly) elected, 
is at once overwhelmed with applications for the ofiices at his dis- 
posal. Each aspirant presents an inventory of his " claims," backed 
by a quire or so of certificates and recommendations, written or 
signed under moral duress, by men who barely know him, or who 
know him too well to write or sign with a good conscience. Some 
recommend him because he has relatives or friends who must not 
be alienated ; others because they hope to use him in the future. 
The longest recommendations attest, not the aspirant's merits, but 
his assiduity and his impudence in button-holing and boring. 
They are duly forwarded to the Executive Chief whose cnoice they 
are to influence ; and he — unable to appoint every one — either 
defers to the longest roll of signatures, or to the wish of the Rep- 
resentative of the District in Congress, if he be of the right stripe, 
or of some local magnate, if he is not, and makes a hap-hazard 
selection. Not once in twenty times is superior fitness either ex- 
acted or regarded. 

How much better is this than the absurdity of hereditary legis- 
lators ? If our Federal and local functionaries were chosen by lot, 
would they average worse than they do now ? 

That " The King can do no wrong," if taken literally, is irra- 
tional. If understood to mean only that he is elevated above all 
temptation to misrule— that his doing wrong would argue moral 
if not mental insanity — that he cannot be presumed to have acted 
within his prerogative under the sway of any unworthy motive — 
then the maxim becomes intelligible. The justification of royalty 
is its alleged tendency to place the chief ruler of a nation above 



HORACE GREELEY. 201 

all temptation to regard and pursue his own interest at the expense 
of the public weal. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF PRESIDENTIAL PATRONAGE. 

In the infancy of our country, the Presidents of Congress were 
first servants of the Republic, but with next to no patronage and 
very little power. No one can give the names of those Presidents, 
any more than of the last half dozen chiefs of the Swiss Confed- 
eration. Of each class it may be said that they 

" Come like shadows, so depart." 

The Federal Constitution made a great change. The President, 
elected by the people for four years, surrounded by able assistants, 
who soon became (though not by that instrument's direction,) his 
Cabinet, and authorized to nominate most of the civil as well as 
the military and naval officers of the Union, rapidly grew in power 
and consequence. It was not, however, until Jefferson had — not 
without apologies and protestations — clearly enunciated the prin- 
ciple that every civil subordinate was liable to removal at the Pres- 
ident's discretion, though for no higher than partisan considera- 
tions, that the power of that functionary suddenly swelled to 
gigantic and threatening dimensions. Mr. Jefferson made few 
removals for politics' sake ; but he asserted the principle, and prac- 
ticed upon it sufficiently to admonish the great body of his func- 
tionaries that the sword over their heads hung suspended by a 
hair. Jackson, twenty-eight years later, pushed the doctrine to 
its legitimate results. Under this rule, every post-master, tide- 
waiter, deputy marshal, etc., became a mere tool, to be discarded 
and replaced as the ambition or the caprice of his lord and master 
should dictate. The Senate, when asked to approve a nominee, 
had no business to inquire into his predecessor's I'emoval, or to 
seek the President's reasons therefor : it could rightfully consider 
only the competency of the proposed successor, and confirm or 
reject him thereupon. 

By this time, the growth of the country, and the still more rapid 
expansion of Federal patronage, had so increased the power of the 
President that, under the Jacksonian interpretation, his office was 
one of more than regal power. No British sovereign of the last 
half-century could strain his prerogative as Jackson did, without 
losing his crown, if not his head. 



202 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

THE EVIL THAT MEN DO I.IVES AFTER THEM. 

Jackson, after a stormy reign of eight years, gave place to the 
mild-mannered, plausible Van Buren, who was very soon deserted 
by the popular tide which had usually borne his predecessors on 
its top-most wave, and was badly beaten in his canvass for a sec- 
ond term. But the "Whigs, who succeeded to power, were alike 
unable and unwilling to return to the salutary rule of Washington 
and the Adamses, who regarded none but the immediate counsel- 
ors of the Chief Executive as subject to removal from office, except 
for a reason which commended itself to good men of all parties 
alike. To displace an efficient and worthy collector or postmaster 
because of his perverse politics, would have seemed to Washing- 
ton a sheer impossibility. 

TO THE VICTORS BELONG THE SPOILS. 

But those who had for twelve years endured and writhed under 
the scorpion whip of Jacksonism would not consent to be still ex- 
cluded from office after they had overthrown their persecutors. 
The "bloody instructions " which they had been taught, they were 
eager to commend in turn to their instructors. So a general 
sweep of the Jacksonian incumbents was decreed; and, though 
somewhat modified by the speedy death of President Harrison, 
was in good part executed. Thenceforward to this hour "to the 
victors belong the spoils of the vanquished" has been the oft disa- 
vowed but practically accepted rule of whichever party was up- 
permost under whatever administration. Its fruits are wide- 
spread in capacity, inefficiency, dishonesty, and peculation. A 
postmaster — not to be too exacting — ought to know how to read ; 
which some do, while others do not. All will admit that such 
ability is desirable in his vocation ; but the one who lacks it is the 
most efficient partisan, and has done the most toward the Presi- 
dent's election, his " claims " cannot be well overborne. Will not 
his services be wanted four years hence ? And how are they to be 
retained if his " claims " are postponed to those of one who can 
read, but has no skill in manipulating voters or votes ? 

Civil Service Reform means the selection of the fittest man for 
office instead of the most effective (or noisy) politicians of the 
dominant party. That is the gist of the matter. It is right, an I 
should prevail. How can this end be secured ? 

GEN. JACKSON URGED THE ONE-TERM PRINCIPLE. 

When Gen. Jackson, after his failure in 1824, became the candl- 



HORACE GREELEY. • 203 

date for President of the three parties or factions which had "worn 
his colors, those of Crowford, and those of Calhoun, respectively, 
iD the preceding scrub-race, his supporters were vociferous in 
commanding the limitation of a President's service to one term. 
They argued that this was the very time to establish the principle, 
when the Adamses, father and son, had leld the office eight years 
between them. They gave out that " that Roman Republican " 
(Jackson) would consent to serve but a single term. And, accord- 
ingly, in Ins first annual message (Dec. 8, 1829), he said: 

I would, therefore, recommend such an amendment of the con- 
stitution as may remove all intermediate agency in the election of 
President and Vice-President. The mode may be so regulated as 
to preserve to each State its present relative weight in the elec- 
tion ; and a failure in the first attempt may be provided for by 
confining the second to the choice between the two highest candi- 
dates. In connection with such an amendment, it would seem ad- 
visable to limit the service of the chief magistrate to the single 
term of either four or six years. If, however, it should not be 
adopted, it is worthy of consideration whether a provision dis- 
qualifying for office the representatives in Congress on whom such 
an election may have devolved, would not be proper." 

[Note. — This latter proposition maybe presumed to have been leveled at Mr. Clay and 
some other Representatives by whose votes in the House John Quim-y Adams was made 
President in 1826 : but it reflects equally on Edward Livingston and others, who voted for 
Mr. Jefferson ill 18^1, and were appointed by him to important and desirable positions.] 

In his next Annual Message (Dec. 7, 1830), he said: 
It was a leading object with the framers of the constitution to 
keep as separate as possible the action of the legislative and execu- 
tive branches of the government. To secure this object, nothing 
is more essential than to preserve the former from the temptations 
of private interest, and therefore so to direct the patronage of the 
latter as not to permit such temptations to be offered. Experi- 
ence abundantly demonstrates that every precaution in this re- 
spect is a valuable safeguard of liberty, and one which my reflec- 
tions upon the tendencies of our system incline me to think should 
be made still stronger. It was for this reason that, in connection 
with an amendment of the constitution removing all intermediate 
agency in the choice of the President, I recommend some restric- 
tions upon the re-eligibility of that officer, and upon the tenure of 
officers generally. The reason still exists ; and 1 renew the recom- 
mendation with an increased confidence that its adoption Avill 
strengthen those checks by which the constitution designed to 
secure the independence of each department of government, and 
promote the healthful and equitable administration of all the 
truths which it has created. The agent most likely to contravene 
this design of the constitution is the chief magistrate. In order, 
particularly, that this appointment may, as far as possible, be 
placed beyond the reach of any improper influences ; in order that 
he may approach the solemn responsibilities of the highest office 
in the gift of a free people uncommitted to any other course than 
the strict line of constitutional duty ; and that the securities for 
this independence may be rendered as strong as the nature of 



204 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

power and the weakness of its possessor will admit. T cannot too 
earnestly invite your attention to the property of promoting snch 
amendment of the constitution as will render him ineligible after 
one term of service." 

Again, in his third annual message (Dec. 6, 1731), he said: 

I have heretofore recommended amendments of the Federal con- 
stitution giving the election of President and Vice-President to 
the people, and limited the service of the former to a single term. 
So important do I consider these charges in our fundamental law, 
that I cannot, in accordance with my sense of duty, omit to press 
them upon the consideration of a new Congress. For my views 
more at large, as well in relation to these points as to the disquali- 
fication of members of Congress to receive an office from a Presi- 
dent in whose election they have had an official agency, which I 
proposed as a substitute, I refer you to my former messages." 

The XXIst Congress having convened, Dec. 8th, 1829, the 
speaker appointed the following select committee under the re- 
solve of Mr. McDuffie relative to the elections and qualifications 
of President of the United States : 

Messrs. McDuffie of S. C, Haynes of Ga., Carson of N. C, Lea 
of Tenn., Martindale of N. Y., Stephens of Pa., and Hughes, of 
N. J. 

No report appears to have been made till next year, when the 
committee was reconstituted as follows : 

Messrs. McDuffie, Coke of Va., Sanford of N. Y., Stephens, 
Hughes, Green of Pa., and Bencher of N. C. 

Dec. 22, 1830, Mr. McDuffie from the aforesaid committee, re- 
ported the following joint resolution : 

Resolved, That the following amendment of the constitution of 
the United States be proposed to the several States, to be valid, to 
all intents and purposes, as part of said constitution when ratified 
by the legislatures of three-fourths of the said States, viz : 

No person shall be hereafter eligible to the office of President 
of the United States who shall have been previously elected to the 
said office, and who shall have accepted the same or exercised the 
powers thereof." 

March 5, 1831 ; Mr. McDuffie moved a suspension of the rule to 
enable him to move that the House do now go into committee of 
the Whole, (on the resolve to amend the constitution relative to 
elections of President, it was understood) says Niles' Register ; 
but there were not two-thirds in the affirmative ; so the motion 
did not prevail. 

A HALT FOLLOWED BY NEW EFFORT. 

Did not, because the reform proposed had struck a sunken rock 
while under full headway, and been brought to a dead halt. 



HORACE GREELEY. 205 

Jacksonism — then at the zenith of its power— had discovered that 
the proposition reported by Mr. McDuffie would, if seasonably 
adopted and ratified, forbid the re-election of its chief — would, if 
in full progress toward adoption furnish at least a moral argument 
against that chief's re-election. Hence, the Globe (which had 
superseded Duff Green's Telegraph as the metropolitan organ of 
the dominant party) denounced it vehemently as an attempt to 
give a retrospective operation to the reform proposed, and called 
on all sincere Jacksonians to oppose and defeat it: so they did. 

Gen. Jackson having been re-elected, the swiftly succeeding 
agitation caused by South Carolina's attempt to nullify the exist- 
ing Tariff, followed by that caused by the President's removal of 
the Public Deposits from the United States Bank, absorbed for 
two or three years the public interest in politics. That agitation 
having measurably subsided, the amendment of the Federal Con- 
stitution with reference to the election of President again claimed 
the attention of the House, which referred it to a Select Commit- 
tee whereof the Hon. Geo. R. Gilmer, of Georgia, was Chairman. 
Jan. 31, 1835, Mr. Gilmer from this Committee reported a proposi- 
tion of Constitutional Amendment, whereof the first section is as 
follows : 

"No person who shall have been elected President of the United 
States shall be again eligible to that office. " 

[Sec. 2 contemplates the choice of President by a direct vote of 
the people of each State, a majority of whom shall decide for 
whom the number of votes whereto that State is entitled shall be 
cast without the interposition of Electors. If there be no choice at 
the first trial, they shall vote again, their choice deing restricted to 
the two candidates having the highest and next highest vote on 
the former. 

Sec. 3 provides that no Member of Congress shall be appointed 
to any Federal office during the term for which he was elected, 
nor for six months after its expiration.] 

After a few approving remarks from the Hon. Jesse Speight, of 
North Carolina, this proposition of amendment was, on Mr. 
Gilmer's motion, referred to a Committee of the "Whole on the 
State of the Union, which seems never to have found time to con- 
sider it. 

DEFEATS CONSEQUENT UPON ATTEMPTING TO RE-ELECT 

PRESIDENTS 

The "Whigs in due time took up the One-Term principle, and 
Mr. Clay expressly gave it his powerful support. He failed to 
achieve the Presidency, and did not succeed in engrafting that 
principle on the Federal Constitution ; but Van Buren, who was 



206 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

first chosen in 1836 by a decided majority, was left, in a meager 
minority at the close of his canvass for a second term. He tried 
again in 1844, and was badly beaten in the National Convention of 
his party by James K. Polk, of Tennessee, who, though then 
elected, declined even to seek a second term. Gen. Taylor, who 
succeeded him, died early in the second year of liis term ; and 
Millard Fillmore, who, being Vice-President, succeeded him, was 
beaten by Gen. Scott in the Whig National Convention of 1852. 
Gen. Franklin Pierce, whom the Democrats then elected, tried to 
be renominated in 1856, but was beaten in Convention by James 
Buchanan, who did not seek a renomination, knowing well that 
such quest would be vain. Mr. Lincoln, who was then choosen by 
the Republicans, was re-elected by them in 1864; the civil war 
then in progress impelling many to support him in deference to 
the law that discourages the swapping of horses while in the act of 
crossing a raging torrent. Mr. Lincoln thus constitutes the sole 
exception to the failure of so many efforts to re-elect a President 
since 1832. Meantime, those efforts have undoubtedly cost some 
signal defeats to either party. Had Mr. Van Buren gracefully 
retired at the close of his first term, his party might very probably 
have avoided their stunning defeat in 1840 ; had Fillmore done 
likewise in 1852, the Whig party might have been defeated, but 
could not have been crushed by its defeat in the triumph of Pierce 
that year. Time and again, since the Federal disaster of 1800, has 
first one, then the other party, run or tried to run a President for 
a second term ; for a quarter of a century, these efforts proved 
successful ; of late, they have very generally proved disastrous. 
" Can ye not discern the signs of the times ? " 

THE PRINCIPLE APPLIED TO OTHER OFFICES. 

That the change has been real, and based neither upon personal 
nor partisan considerations, is evinced by the gradual adoption of 
the contested principle in other yet kindred spheres. Witness the 
post of Governor, which was formerly filled in nearly or quite 
every State without restriction on this head ; whereas at this time, 
in the States of New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, 
South Carolina, and Kentucky, a Governor is not eligible to re- 
election while in office or for the term succeeding that for which 
he was elected ; in Arkansas, Texas, and Oregon, he may serve but 
eight years out of any twelve ; in Maine, North Carolina, Alabama, 
and Mississippi, he may serve but four years out of any six ; in 
Pennsylvania, six years out of any nine ; in Tennesssee, six years 
out of any eight. The intent in each case (however imperfectly 



HORACE GREELEY. 207 

developed,) is to check if not overbear the tendency to use patron- 
age for the indelinate perpetuation of power. 

So with the cognate post of Sheriff— one which often requires 
many deputies, who are apt to be young, active men, of strong 
physique and on intimate terms with the people, over whom they 
exercise much influence. Hence, the Constitution of our own 
State thus provides for the emergency : 

" Sheriffs, Clerks of Counties, &c, shall be chosen by the electors 
of the different Counties once in every three years, and as often as 
vacancies shall happen. Sheriffs shall hold no other office, and 
shall be ineligible for the next three years after the termination of 
their offices." 

In the first Constitution of our State, framed at Kingston in 1777, 
it was provided that 

" The Sheriffs and Coroners shall be annually appointed ; and no 
person shall be capable of holding either of the said offices more 
than four years successively." 

The Constitutions of Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania, Virginia, each contain a provision substantially 
identical with the above. Those of several other States allow a 
Sheriff to be re-elected once, but not to serve more than four in 
any consecutive six years. New Jersey elects Sheriffs annually, 
but one can only be elected thrice in succession. Practically, he is 
allowed to hold three years, though chosen annually, and is there- 
after ineligible for the next three years. 

'it is eight to be taught by an enemy." 

Simply as an evidence of the drift of opinion among those who 
had thoughtfully watched for years the practical working of our 
Federal Government, it may be added that the Constitution framed 
for and adopted by the Southern Confederacy included this pro- 
vision : 

" Art. ii., Sec. 1. The Executive power shall be vested in a 
President of the Confederate States of America. He and the Vice- 
President shall hold their offices for the term of six years ; but the 
President shall not be re-eligible." 

How soon, if ever, a similar provision shall be engrafted on the 
Federal Constitution, it were rash to predict. It is not essential 
to the success of the reform contemplated that it should ever be # 
All that is needed is an intelligent, earnest, wide-spread conviction 
that the practice of re-electing a chief magistrate while in office is 
fraught with evil and peril — that it distracts the attention from the 
proper cares and duties of his station, and impels him to consider 
not who are fittest and most worthy to fill the offices in his gift, 



208 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

but what choice will be most likely to improve his chances of re- 
nomination. Here is the right man for a Justice of our Supreme 
Court who has no influential clique at his back ; here is a rival who 
is neither so capable nor so worthy, but whose friends control the 
party machinery in a populous State, and can send delegates to the 
approaching National Convention either for or against the incum- 
bent of the White House : who that knows average human nature 
can doubt that the less fit aspirant has the better prospect of obtain- 
ing that Justiceship ? And this instance may stand for a thousand. 
We shall yet achieve a Civil Service Reform. Nay ; we must. 
Office-seeking is our National vice, divesting our workshops of 
apprentices and our farms of halt the intelligent, energetic, aspir- 
ing youth who ought to make our Agriculture of the next thirty 
years exhibit a series of brilliant advances and improvements upon 
all that preceded it. But vainly shall we hope for such reform 
through the lopping off of branches while the root of the Upas re- 
mains intact and vital. That root is the re-election while in office 
of Presidents, Governors and other dispensers of vast patronage, 
with their consequent temptation to use that patronage in aid of 
their own continuance in power. 

THE WHIG DOCTRINE OF ONE PRESIDENTIAL TERM. 

Ann Arbor, Mich., Dec. 16, 1871. 
To the Editor of the Tribune : 

Sir: — If not encroaching too much on your time, T should be 
very thankful for a reply to this question — " What is ' the good 
old Whig doctrine of one Presidential Term?'''''' The question 
is being agitated among us, and any light upon it will be thank- 
fully received. 

Yours, 

A. C. Ricketts. 

RESPONSE BY THE TRIBUNE. 

If our correspondent has understood us as teaching that Whigs 
only upheld the One Term principle, he mistook us. We have 
already quoted extensively from Gen. Jackson, George McDuffie, 
and other eminent Democrats, in favor of that principle. We be- 
lieve no other disputed proposition ever received such general 
assent from the experienced and eminent statesmen of our coun- 
try, without distinction of party, as this — It is not right that any 
one, while wielding the vast power and patronage of the Presi- 



HORACE GREELEY. 209 

dency, shall be a candidate for that or any other office. That this 
was Gen. Grant's opinion, prior to his election in 1868, we have 
conclusive proof. But our friend asks with regard to " the Whig 
doctrine," and we answer accordingly. 

The first "Whig National Convention ever held assembled at 
Harrisburg, Pa., early in December, 1839, and was attended by the 
most eminent and honored chiefs of that party. Eight of its Vice- 
Presidents had been governors of their respective States, while a 
large proportion were or had been Embassadors, Senators, Repre- 
sentatives in Congress, &c. This convention nominated Gen. 
"Wm. Henry Harrison of Ohio for President, with John Tyler of 
Virginia for Vice-President. It framed no "platform" (as the 
modern term is) ; but the convictions of the party were so fixed 
and well-known that Gen. Harrison, in accepting its nomination 
for President, placed himself squarely on record as follows : 

I deem it proper at this time to renew the assurances, hereto- 
fore frequently made, that, should I be elected to the Presidency, 
I will under no circumstances consent to be a candidate for a 
second term." 

In this letter of acceptance, Gen. Harrison refers for a fuller ex- 
position of his principles to one he had some time before written 
to the Hon. Harmar Denny of Pittsburgh, Pa. In that letter, he 
says : 

Among the principles proper to be adopted by any Executive 
sincerely desiring to restore the administration to its original sim- 
plicity and purity, I deem the following of importance : 

I. To confine his services to a single term. 

Again, in his speech at Dayton, Ohio, September 10, 1840, Gen. 
Harrison said : 

If the privilege of being President of the United States had 
been limited to one term, the incumbent tvould devote all his time 
to the public interest, and there would be no cause to misrule the 
country. I shall not animadvert on the conduct of the present ad- 
ministration, lest you may, in that case, conceive that 1 am aiming 
at the Presidency, to use it for selfish purposes. I should be an 
interested witness if I entered into that subject. But I pledge my- 
self before heaven and earth, if elected President of the United 
States, to lay down at the end of the term, faithfully, that high 
trust at the feet of the people. 

Henry Clay declared himself to the same effect, not once only, 
but repeatedly, persistently. In his speech to the companions of 
his childhood, at Taylorsville, Hanover county, Va., June 27, 1840, 
he said : 
14 



210 LITE AND CAREER OF 

With a view, therefore, to the fundamental character of the gov- 
ernment itself, and especially of the executive branch, it seems to 
me that, either by amendments of the constitution when they are 
necessary, or by remedial legislation, when the object falls within 
the scope of the powers of Congress, there should be, 

1st. A provision to render a person ineligible to the office of 
President of the United States after a service of one term. 

Much observation and deliberate reflection have satisfied me 
that too much of the time, the thoughts, and the exertions of the 
incumbent, are occupied during the first term in securing his re- 
election. The public business, consequently suffers; and meas- 
ures are proposed or executed with less regard to the general 
prosperity than to their influence upon the approaching election. 
If the limitation to one term existed, the President would be ex- 
clusively devoted to the discharge of his public duties ; and he 
would endeavor to signalize his administration by the beneficence 
and wisdom of its measures. 

But this, some will say, was while a political opponent was 
President, and he wanted to defeat his re-election. But Mr. Clay 
held to the principle after Van Buren's defeat as firmly as before. 
Witness the following letter : 

Asht.and, Sept, 13, 1842. 

Dear Sir: — T received your favor, communicating the patri- 
otic purposes and views of the young men of Philadelphia, and I 
take pleasure, in compliance with your request, in stating some of 
the principal objects which, I suppose, engage the common desire 
and the common exertion of the Whig party to bring about, in the 
government of the United States. These are : 

A sound National Currency, regulated by the will and authority 
of the nation. 

An adequate Revenue, with fair protection to American Indus- 
try. 

Just restraints on the Executive, embi*acinga further restriction 
on the exercise of the Veto. 

A faithful administration of the Public Domain, with an Equi- 
table Distribution of the proceeds of the sales of it among the 
States. 

An Honest and Economical administration of the General Gov- 
ernment, leaving Public Officers perfect freedom of thought, and 
of the Right of Suffrage; but with suitable Restraints against im- 
proper Interference in Elections. 

An amendment of the Constitution, limiting the incumbent of 
the Presidential office to a Single Term. 

These objects attained, I think that we should cease to be 
afflicted with bad administration of the government. I am re- 
spectfully your friend and obedient servant, 

Henry Clay. 

Mr. Jacob Strattan. 



HORACE GREELEY. 211 

The second "Whig National Convention assembled in Baltimore 
May 1, 1844 — John M. Clayton of Delaware presiding — and unani- 
mously nominated Henry Clay for President. Theodore Freling- 
huysen was nominated for Vice-President That convention, with 
one voice, 

Resolved, That in presenting to the country the names of Henry 
Clay for Presieent, and Theodore Frelinghnysen for Vice-Presi- 
dant, this convention is actuated by the conviction that all the 
great principles of Whig party — principles inseparable from the 
public honor and prosperity — will be maintained and advanced by 
the election of these candidates. 

Resolved, That these principles may be summed up as compris- 
ing a well-regulated national currency — a tariff for revenue to de- 
fray the necessary expenses of the government, and discriminating 
with the special reference to the protection of the domestic labor 
of the country — the distribution of the proceeds from the sales of 
the public lands — a Single Term for the Presidency — a reform of 
executive usurpations — and generally such an administration of 
the affairs of the country as shall impart to every branch of the 
public service the greatest practicable efficiency, controlled by a 
well-regulated and wise ecomomy. 

At a great mass meeting of Whigs held in Monument Square 
that evening, and addressed by Daniel "Webster and others it 
was 

"Resolved, That the practical restriction of the Veto power 
which has grown by repeated encroachments into a mighty engine 
of Executive Despotism, the limitation of a President to a single 
term, the retrenchment of our national expenditures by every 
practicable means ; the reform of the now glaring abuses and coi*- 
ruptions growing out of an unworthy bestowal of Executive 
patronage, and the general reduction of burdens and increase of 
benefits resulting to the people from the existence and operations 
of the Federal Government, are objects for which the "Wing party 
will unceasingly strive until their efforts are crowned xoith a 
siynal and triumphant success. 

On the 17th of Sept., 1840 an immense gathering of Whigs — not 
less than Fifty Thousand — assembled in Young Men's Convention 
at Syracuse. Nearly all the eminent and honored Whigs of the 
State were there, with Hon. James "Wilson of N. H., and many 
more distinguished outsiders. The Hon. Francis Granger pre- 
sided. The Address was reported by Horace Greeley, and 
enthusiastically responded to. It opens as follows : 

"Fifty thousand of your brethren, this day assembled in Con- 
vention at Syracuse, respectfully submit to you a summary of the 
considerations which induce them to oppose the re-election of 
Martin Van Buren to the Presidency of the United States. They 



212 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

ask you as Freemen and Brothers, having a common interest in 
the welfare of our common country, to give these considerations 
that weight to which your enlightened judgment shall deem them 
entitled. They ask you, if you deem them valid, to unite your 
efforts with ours in rendering that opposition triumphant and 
etfective. 

"We oppose the re-election of Marttn Van Buren, because we 
believe experience has demonstrated that the re-eligibility of a 
President while in office is calculated to impair his usefulness, 
pervert his talents, and alarmingly increase the power and influ- 
ence of his station. An office-seeking President, unless he be one 
of those rare characters which raise above personal and party con- 
siderations, must always exert a fatal influence over the freedom 
of political opinion and action among the thousands who hold 
lucrative places subject to his pleasure. Gratitude for past favor, 
the fear of instant displacement, and the hope of future advance- 
ment, will inevitably combine the great mass of Federal office- 
holders into a drilled cohort of Executive upholders — a Praetorian 
band of apologists and advocates of the great Dispenser of Patron- 
age and his measures. No matter how flagrant may be the usur- 
pation he commits or the abuse he connives at, he is sure of at least 
one ardent companion in every village — of one hundred in every 
principal city, and of thousands constantly traversing the whole 
length of the country and mingling undistinguished with its citi- 
zens. The history of the last ten years abundanly and strikingly 
illustrates chis truth. This advantage given to power in every col- 
lision with opposing public sentiment, is too strong for the purity 
if not for the perpetuity of Republican institutions. Long before 
that monstrous political code which regards the trusts of the 
People as the 'Spoils of the Vanquished' and the booty of the 
Victors in our party contests had been matured and promulgated, 
the danger to our Liberties had attracted the anxious regard of 
our Country's most cherished Statesmen and Patriots. Mr. Jef- 
ferson, more than fifty years ago, pronounced the re-eligibility of 
the President a fatal defect in our system. Gen. Jackson was 
elected to the Chief Magistracy under strong promises and 
pledges on the part of his friends, with an earnest desire and 
expectation on that of the People, that he would establish the 
great principle for which we are now contending. He failed 
to satisfy that expectation, however, and the evil which was once 
theoretrical and distant, is now alarmingly practical and imminent. 
But happily the remedy is at hand. The People have now the 
assurance of one who never deceived or betrayed them, that a ver- 
dict now given against Presidential office-seeking shall be rendered 
effectual and final." 

— The doctrine thus enunciated came from the heart. The 
writer believed it then, with all his soul, and of course believes it 
still. Some one once professed faith in it have fallen away ; but 
he has seen no reason to swerve from the position thus deliberately 
taken. He might quote from hundreds more in support of its cor- 
rectness, but prefers that the truth shall bear its own weight 



HORACE GREELEY. 213 

rather than be bolstered up by a wilderness of authorities. "Was 
he right in 1840 ? If he was, he is not wrong now. 

ONE TERM. 

The Washington Chronicle prints in solemn silence Mr. Sum- 
ner's proposal that the Federal Constitution shall be so amended 
that no President shall, after 1873, be eligible to re-election. 
That journal has not wont to be so reticent. Four years have 
not yet passed since it demonstrated earnestly, persistently, in 
favor of One Presidential Term. Witness the following leader 
from its issue of June 3, 1868 : 

ONLY ONE TERM. 

A difficult question to settle was the term of the Presidential 
office in the Convention of 1789. Several prominent members 
changed sides upon it during the discussion. Many of the views 
of those wiio desired the President to be eligible for re-election 
have not been realized. Most of the objections urged against eligi- 
bility have been realized. Its dangerous effect upon executive 
officers and the administration of the Government was observed 
and commented on by De Tocqueville in 1835, and, in his ' Democ- 
racy in America,' he pronounced it the incurable disease, sapping 
the vitals of our Republic. He said, with sadness and too much 
truth, that the personal interests of the President became superior 
to his sense of official duty, and that everything was subordinate 
to them. He wondered how the architects of the Federal system, 
who had managed to preserve so fair a balance of power through 
the organization of the three departments of the Government, 
should have been short-sighted enough to render their whole work 
insecure by making the President eligible to a re-election. We 
wonder, too, for it has incontestably done more to destroy the con- 
stitutional balance and weaken our institutions than any other in- 
herent defect of our system, or perhaps all others combined. From 
the first, it has induced Executive activity, not in the administra- 
tive duty assigned to the office of President by the Constitution, 
but in leading legislation, in indicating and forcing the internal and 
external policy of the Government. From the very beginning, we 
have been in trouble with what were called "Administration 
measures." Presidents have constantly gone beyond the modest, 
but all-sufficient, limits prescribed for them in the Constitution, of 



214 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

giving Congress information of the state of the Union and recom- 
mending to their consideration such measures as they shall judge 
necessary and expedient, and have restored to all the pressure 
which the vast means and patronage of the Government has placed 
in their hands. The result has been a magnifying of the Presiden- 
tial office as the center of all honor and power, and a consequent 
decrease of respect for the other branches of Government. 

"We are glad to perceive that Gen. Grant, the Republican nomi- 
nee for the Presidency, has so succinctly stated his views of the 
office which he is destined to fill. He regards it as a "purely ad- 
ministrative office," and says he will have " no policy of his own 
to enforce against the people's will." This is a constitutional 
view of the Presidential office, and one which, in its practical influ- 
ence, cannot fail to secure harmonious co-operation between the 
different departments of the Government and peace to the country. 
"We most heartily echo the sentiment expressed in the last line of 
our candidate's letter: "Let us have peace." To obtain this, it is 
of ths first importance that the President should be satisfied with 
performing the duty assigned to him by the Constitution — that of 
administering the laws, not making them, nor sitting in judgment 
upon them. He has neither legislative nor judicial powers, and 
when he attempts to substitule proclamations for the authority of 
law, as Andrew Johnson did in his restoration policy, or to sub- 
stitute his opinion in place of law, as he did in the case of Mr. 
Stanton, the President trenches upon the powers granted to other 
departments. There is a constant temptation to do this, so long 
as a President may be re-elected. He desires to be popular and 
attain the credit for all the measures enacted during las term, 
which suit the popular taste. Hence the constant interference of 
the Executive in the legislation of Congress and his efforts to en- 
force a policy of his own. What the country needs for pacifica- 
tion is a President without a policy. Such a one we shall have in 
Gen. Grant. He is, moreover, an advocate of the One-Term 
principle, as conducting toward the propel* administration of the 
law — a principle with which so many prominent Republicans have 
identified themselves that it maybe accepted as an article of party 
faith. Senators Wade and Sumner have each amendments to the 
Constitution pending before the Senate, restricting the Presidency 
to a single term, and on Saturday last the Hon. James M. Ashley 
of Ohio introduced two amendments to the Constitution into the 
House of Representatives for the same purpose, and with the fur- 
ther view of electing the President by a direct vote of the people, 



HORACE GREELEY. 215 

abolishing the office of Vice-President, and providing a more satis- 
factory method of general election. 

These amendments he sustains in an elaborate argument, indi- 
cating thorough research and perfect mastery of his subject. There 
was a time in our history when reputations for statesmanship were 
established by so able an elucidation of the results to flow from a 
measure of such importance. Many of his views will be novel and 
striking to those who have not reflected upon the subject; but 
they are evidently drawn from the resource of a large experience 
in the practical workings of existing governmental machinery. 

— Will the Chronicle be good enough to tell us what it thinks of 
the above doctrine now f 

ONE PRESIDENTIAL TERM. 

The fact that Mr. George Wilkes, in his Spirit of the Times, 
insists on the restriction of each President to a single term, is 
cited by some as an evidence of dissatisfaction on his part with 
the distribution of Federal patronage. "0 ! Wilkes is one of 
the soreheads !" is the cry; "he wanted something from Gen. 
Grant, and didn't get it : of course he goes for one term ! " To 
show how fallacious and unjust this assumption is, we — having 
had no communication with Mr. Wilkes for a year past — copy 
verbatim the leading editorial from his Spirit of Nov. 28, 1868 
— three weeks after the People had voted that Gen. Grant should 
be President, but before the Electors had convened to make the 
choice — as follows : 

GRANT AND THE ONE-TERM PRINCIPLE. 

We learn from the Washington correspondence of the Tribune, 
with a gratification which is almost personal, that Gen. Grant is 
about to enroll himself at the head of American statesmen by rec- 
ommending the one-term principle in his inaugural address. 
Washington and Jackson, after having enjoyed two terms of the 
Presidential office, retired from the chair with the solemn and 
earnest appeal to the country to limit their successors to one. The 
more disinterested and self-sacrificing honor is reserved for Grant 
to enter upon his first term with the recommendation on his lips 
that he himself, as well as his successors, should be limited by the 
Constitution to one term only. None could doubt the purity of 



216 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

such an appeal. Few will demur to its wisdom and necessity. 
The bane of Presidents has been the monarchical grasping toward 
a future term. This selfish interest has blurred the judgments of 
men whe had been thought the clearest and ablest, and stained the 
honor of some who had seemed pure. As a rule, this "vaulting 
ambition has o'erleaped itself," and the President, in the hopes of 
a second term, has been led like Johnson into those very combina- 
tions which have not only made a second term impossible, but 
have well nigh cut short the first. 

Nothing strengthens our confidence in Gen. Grant's peculiar fit- 
ness for the Presidency more than the convictions he has already 
expressed in an unofficial manner, in favor of limiting Presidents 
to one term. Though we have pressed this principle zealously in 
the columns of the Spirit for many years, our ambition is not to 
ride a hobby, but to redeem the first office of the Republic from 
personal and selfish motives — to rescue its vast powers from per- 
version to the insignificant and base end of promoting the re-elec- 
tion of its incumbent. Whatever reasons weighed upon the minds 
of "Washington and Jackson in the infancy of the Republic, have 
acquired four-fold force with its expansion into its present 
empire. 

The President now appoints 41,000 officers, and distributes a 
direct patronage of nearly one hundred and fifty millions of dol- 
lars per annum, and an indirect and collateral patronage still 
greater. His power over legislation is constitutionally equal to 
that of two-thirds of that of both Houses of Congress, and through 
his influence over the appropriations of that body, and the admin- 
istration of the revenues and the laws, and the distribution of the 
contracts by various departments, the stream of wealth, power, 
and place which flows through his hands to others, is as great as 
was ever controlled by Napoleon or the Caesars. His influence 
over the Southern States must be for several years like that of the 
hero of Marengo and Austerlitz over the conquered kingdoms of 
Europe. The motive of the President, whether patriotic or per- 
sonal, is the secret spring which moves this vast human mechanism 
for good or evil. If his motive is patriotic and disinterested, a 
spirit of integrity breaths through the entire body poltic, quick- 
ening it from inertia, and cleansing it from corruption. If his spirit 
be one of self-seeking and personal gain, whether in abject base- 
ness he grasps at money, or in stern ambition he strike for power, 
all the channels of official influence, like so many nerves, tingle 
with the thrill of his sordid nature and reek with rottenness. 
Everywhere unprincipled parasites and flatterers step into office 
over the heads of honest men, and compensate themselves for the 



HORACE GREELEY. 217 

reputations they sacrifice in holding office imder a corrupt adminis- 
tration by preying on the revenues and the people until they seem 
more like vultures than the administration which appoints them. 
We have greater confidence in the personal power and will of 
Gen. Grant to withstand and overrule these influences than in 
that of any other person now living who could he suhjected to 
them. But constitutions should he adapted to secure the hest 
results from the average of selfish and amhitious human nature. 
Those which depend on an unfailing supply of patriotism may 
meet spasmodic success, hut must ultimately break down. We 
concede, too, that other influences beside the "one-term principle" 
should supplement and aid it. Our civil and diplomatic service 
should be graded like our military service, so that all should reach 
the higher positions thoroughly prepared by experience gained in 
the lower, and promotion should attend upon merit and not acci- 
dent. Our present Civil Service is an utterly disorganized maze, 
which needs nothing so much as the mind of a military organizer 
to reduce it to order. "I remove you," said Grant to Gen. Warren, 
after Five Forks, "because you do not organize ; you have no faith 
in your Division Generals. I gave you an order which one of 
them should execute, and yon execute it yourself. While you, in 
command of one division, are thus getting whipped for want of 
re-enforcements, your other divisions are lying idle for want of a 
corps commander." Just the same lack of organization is at work 
in the Treasury Department. While Secretary McCulloch is 
investigating a seizure case in New York City, which he can trust 
neither the Collector of the port to settle, the District Attorney to 
try, nor the United States Courts to decide, the harpies are every- 
where robbing the revenues, and so making confusion worse con- 
founded that the acutest moralist could not distinguish the honest 
servant of the Government from the thief. To prevent the 41,000 
office-holders of the Government from acting upon a tacit agree- 
ment with the President that they will extend his term if he will 
continue theirs, and to prevent the entire patronage of the Presi- 
dent's office from being used as a corruption-fund to secure his 
re-election, by removing all who oppose his policy, and by 
appointing sycophants and toadies in their stead, we need not 
only the limitation of the President to one term, but we need such 
a Civil Service bill as shall render the Civil Service an honorable 
profession. "I hold," said a genial and clever officer of the Gov- 
ernment, a few days ago, "that our only claim to the respect of 
worthy people lies in their knowledge that when we accept an office 
with a paltry salary of $3,000, we do not hold our services at that 
base figure, but that we intend to make $15,000 a year out of it." 



218 LIFE AND CAREER OP 

As he entered upon a like salary, iusolvent a few years ago, has 
lived up thrice his salary ever since, and now owns a $30,000 man- 
sion and is highly respected, especially hy the Treasury Depart- 
ment, his view of the matter is doubtless correct. But Gen. 
Grant, backed by the one-term principle and the Civil Service bill, 
will change all that. 

— We ask those who are now deriding the One-Term principle 
as got up for the occasion, to ponder well the considerations 
above set forth. Those of us who have held fast that principle 
for more than thirty years must be allowed to hold it still. — 
Dec. 11, 1871. 

GRANT — FORNEY — ONE TERM. 

Col. Forney's statement through the Sunday Chronicle, (Wash- 
ington,) of the successive confederates between himself, Col. Raw- 
lins, and others, through which Gen. Grant was formally brought 
forward (Nov. 7, 1867,) as a candidate for the Presidency, seems to 
us indicative of a lapse of memory on Col. F's part, either now or 
very soon after those remarkable conferences. Let us requote the 
most salient paragraphs of Col. Forney's letter: 

"When Rawlins came back from Gen. Grant with the editorial 
[nominating him], he told us, with great emphasis, " Gen. Grant 
does not want to be President. He thinks the Republican party 
may need him, and he believes, as their candidate, he can be 
elected and re-elected ; but," said Rawlins, " what is to become of 
him after his second Presidential term ? What, indeed, during 
his administration? He is receiving from seventeen to twenty 
thousand dollars a year as General of the Armies of the Republic — 
a life-salary. To go into the Presidency, at $25,000 a year, for 
eight years, is, perhaps, to gain more fame; but what is to become 
of him at the end of his Presidency ? He is not a politician. He 
does not aspire to the place. Eight years from the fourth of March, 
1869, he will be about iifty-six years old. Of course, he must 
spend his salary as President. England, with her Wellington, her 
Nelson, and her other heroes on land and sea, has never hesitated 
to enrich and ennoble them through all their posterity. Such a 
policy is in accordance with the character of the English Govern- 
ment ; but in our country, the mail who fights for and saves the 
Republic would be a beggar if he depended upon political office ; 
and, mark it, if Grant takes anything from the rich, whose vast 



HORACE GREELEY. 219 

fortunes he has saved, after he is President, he will be accused as 
the willing recipient of gifts. 

" Just now, when Gen. Grant is struggling out of the first term of 
the Presidency and struggling into the second, I thought it might 
not be out,of place to revive this incident. Thus it will be seen 
that Gen. Grant not only desired to remain President for two 
terms, but it was only on the assurance of his friends that he 
should be re-elected that he accepted the oflice at all.'' 

COMMENTS BY THE TRIBUNE. 

Col. Forney must have forgotten, when he wrote the above, the 
successive editorials in his Chronicle during the weeks immedi- 
ately preceding Gen. Grant's formal presentment at Chicago 
(June, 1868,) as the Republican candidate for President, wherein 
the One-Term principle was strongly commended, and his journal 
committed thereto as absolutely as words could bind it. Those 
articles, we are well assured, were seen by Gen. Grant — in some 
instances, before their publication — and were understood by their 
author to receive his approbation. — Feb. 27. 

He (De Tocquevillc) wondered how the architects of the federal 
system, who had managed to preserve so fair a balance of power 
through the organization of the three departments of the Govern- 
ment, should have been short-sighted enough to render their 
whole work insecure, by making the President eligible to re-elec- 
tion. We wonder, too, for it has incontestably done more to des- 
troy the constitutional balance, and weaken our institutions, than 
any other inherent defeat of our system, or, perhaps, all others 
combined. 

What the country needs for pacification is a President without 
a policy. Such a one we shall have in Gen. Grant. He is, more- 
over, an advocate of the One-Term principle, as conducing toward 
the proper administration of the law — a principle with which so 
many prominent Republicans have identified themselves that it 
may be accepted as an article of party faith. Senators Wade and 
Sumner have each amendments to the constitution pending before 
the Senate restricting the Presidency to a single term, and on Sat- 
urday last the Hon. James M. Ashley of Ohio introduced two 
amendments to the constitution into the House of Representatives 
for the same purpose, and with the further view of electing the 
President by a direct vote of the people, abolishing the oflice of 
Vice-President, and providing a more satisfactory method of gen- 
eral election. — Washington Chronicle, June 3, 1868. 

Let not Congress adjourn without passing the One-Term amend- 
ment to the constitution. There has never been so favorable an 
opportunity. All parties are in favor of it. The present incum- 
bent of the Presidential oflice has no inducement to oppose it. 
Nobody's sensibilities can be offended by it. It cannot be charged 



220 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

as a party movement intended to head off an obnoxious President. 
Gen. Grant is in favor of it. The party which supports Gen. 
Grant demands it, and, above all else, public morality calls for it. 
Let us never again witness the utter debasement of the Presiden- 
tial office by the efforts of the incumbent to secure a second term. 
The second term makes the first a period of chicanery. It is the 
fertile germ of ''Executive Policy," and brings forth a fearful crop 
of treachery and lies. 

It is the fomenter of divisions between the department, and the 
inducer of executive usurpations. It is a constant peril to the 
liberties of the country. Not a man or a party in the country 
worth counseling with wishes the President to be eligible to a re- 
election. If the opportunity is lost, and we wait until after the 
next Presidential election, we shall run counter to some supposed 
personal or party interest in reopening this subject Then why 
wait? 

It need not take a day to pass the necessai-y amendment, and in 
the present temper of the country it will be ratified. Congress 
should not adjourn without passing the One-Term amendment. 

But, even though we should prove to have been misinformed on 
this point, the publication of these articles as editorial in the 
Chronicle is matter of record and notoriety. How can it be 
reconciled with Col. Forney's statement above quoted ? Say that 
Gen. Grant did not commit himself to the One-Term principle, 
how does this help the Chronicle. — Daily Chronicle, Washington, 
July 14, 1868. 

THE OLD WHIG DOCTRINE. 



Mr. Jefferson's circular, as President, enjoining Federal office- 
holders to leave the selection of candidates and the management of 
party politics to others, has long been universally regarded as 
sound in principle as well as forcible in statement. That same 
just conception of the proprieties of official position was firmly 
held and frankly asserted by the eminent Whig statesmen of a later 
day. Witness the following extract from Daniel Webster's speech 
on the Power of Removal and Appointment, delivered in Senate, 
Feb. 16, 1835 : 

"The extent of the patronage springing from this power of ap- 
pointment and removal is so great that it brings a dangerous mass 
of private and porsonal interests into operation in all great public 
elections and public questions. * * * The unlimited 
power to grant office and to take it away gives a command over 
the hopes and fears of a vast multitude of men. It is generally 
true that he who controls a man's living controls his will. * * * 
Office of every kind is now sought with extraordinary avidity, and 



HORACE GREELEY. 221 

the condition well understood to be attached to every office, high 
or low, is indiscriminate support of Executive measures, and im- 
plicit obedience to Executive will. * * * I am for arrest- 
ing the further progress of this Executive patronage, if we can 
arrest it. I am for staying the further contagion of this plague. 

* * * Sudden removals from office are seldom necessary ; 
we see how seldom, by reference to the practice of the Government 
under all Administrations which have preceded the present. * * 

* I desire only, for the present at least, that when the President 
turns a man out of office he should give his reasons for it to the 
Senate, when he nominates another person to fill the place. * * 

* The removing power, as recently exercised, tends to turn the 
whole body of public officers into partisans, dependents, favorites, 
sycophants, and man-worshipers." 

Said Sergeant S. Prentiss of Miss., in the House of Representa- 
tives, Dec. 28, 1838 : 

" Since the avowal of that unprincipled and barbarian motto, 
that 'To the victors belong the spoils,' office, which was intended 
for the use and benefit of the people, has become but the plunder 
of party. Patronage is waved like a huge magnet over the land, 
and demagogues, like iron filings, attracted by a Law of their 
nature, gather and cluster around its poles. Never yet lived the 
demagogue who would not take office. 

" The whole frame of our Government, the whole institutions 
of the country, are thus prostituted to the uses of party. I express 
my candid opinion when I aver that I do not believe a single office 
of importance within the control of the Executive has, for the last 
five years, been filled with any other view, or upon any other con- 
sideration, than that of party effect. Office is conferred as the 
reward of partisan service. 

" Do you see the eagerness with which even Governors, Senators, 
and Representatives in Congress, grasp at the most trivial appoint- 
ments — the most insignificant emoluments ?" 

Thomas Jefferson, writing, after his election as President, to 
Gov. M.cKean of Penna., with reference to interference by Federal 
officers in State Elections, expresses opinions almost identical. 

— Now contrast with these utterances the following triumphant 
proclamation by the editor of ihe Commercial Advertiser, who 
was himself a worker on the Custom-house side in the late struggle 
at Albany, and who wrote thence to this paper as follows : 

" The success of Henry Smith of Albany for Speaker is a great 
triumph for the Reformers. This triumph, strange as it may seem 
to some people, was brought about by what the Tribune is pleased 



222 LIFE AND CAREER OF 

to call ' the Custom-house crowd.' It is true, there was a delega- 
tion here from the Custom-house, and every man did what he could 
to secure the success of Smith;' * * * * Mr. A. B. 
Cornell,. who acted as the head and front of the opposition to 
Mr. Alvord, inspired every man around him with confidence that 
Smith's success was certain. To him and Mr. Naval Officer Lnf- 
lin the Reformers are indebted for the success of their candi- 
date:' 

— If Senator Howe had only been a reader of the Commercial, 
he need not have been so distrustful of the testimony of Mr. Gree- 
ley to the same effect with the above. 

FICTION AQAINST HISTORY. 

" It came to pass that the pretensions of a certain troublesome 
little faction of the Republican party were not recognized either at 
the White House or in the Republican State organization, as the 
leaders of that faction thought they should have been ; and then 
those leaders whispered to a certain political philosopher that 
there ought to be a political philosopher in the White House, and 
not a military man, no matter how full of honesty and common 
sense. The political philosopher could not conjecture who was 
meant. Certainly he had no thought of such change of residence, 
and no desire for it ; but suddenly one clay the great One-Term 
principle was discovered and held up to the faithful, as the certain 
cure, like the hrazen serpent in the wilderness, of all the ills from 
which the suffered." — New York Times. 

THE TRUTH. 

On the 17th of September, 1840, (more than thirty years ago) the 
editor of the Tribune reported and read an address to the Young 
Men of our State, wherein, on behalf and with the hearty approval 
of not less than forty thousand Whigs then and there present, he 
said : 

" We believe experience has demonstrated that the re-eligibility 
of a President while in office is calculated to impair his usefulness, 
pervert his talents, and alarmingly increase the power and influ- 
ence of his station. An office-seeking President, unless his be one 
of those rare characters which rises above personal and party con- 
siderations, must always exert a fatal influence over the freedom 
of political opinion, and action among the thousands who hold 
lucrative places subject to his pleasure. Gratitude for past favor, 
the fear of instant displacement, and the hope of future advance- 
ment, will inevitably combine the great mass of Federal office- 
holders into a drilled cohort of Executive upholders — a Praetorian 
band of apologists and advocates of the great Dispenser of Patron- 
age and his measures. No matter how flagrant may be the usur- 
pation he commits, or the abuse he connives at, he is sure of at 



HORACE GREELEY. 223 

least one ardent champion in every village — of hundreds in every 

f»rincipal city, and of thousands constantly traversing the whole 
ength of the country and mingling undistinguished with its citi- 
zens. The history of the last ten years abundantly and strikingly 
illustrates this truth. This advantage given to power in every 
collission with opposing public sentiment, is too strong for the 
purity if not for the perpetuity of the Republican institutions.'* 

— These views were held and reiterated by the Whigs in that 
contest, from Gen. Harrison and Henry Clay downward, without 
one audible dissent, and were unanimously re-affirmed by their 
National Convention whereby Clay and Frelinghuysen were nomi- 
nated at Baltimore, May, 1844. This editor has not swerved from 
them to this hour. — March 2, 1872. 

In 1864, he dissented from the great body of his fellow-Republi- 
cans, who deemed the re-nomination of Mr. Lincoln, under the 
extraordinary circumstances then existing, indispensable. The 
Times then assailed him for this dissent, as its columns will show ; 
but it did not then attribute his course to the motive it now sug- 
gests. 

In 1868, when Gen. Grant had just been nominated for Presi- 
dent, the daily Chronicle, edited by Col. Forney, and the leading 
Republican journal at the Federal Metropolis, editorially said : 

" De Tocqueville wondered how the architects of the Federal 
system, who had managed to preserve so fair a balance of power 
through the organization of the three departments of the Govern- 
ment, should have been short-sighted enough to render their whole 
work insecure, by making the President eligible to re-election. 
We wonder, too, for it has incontestably done more to. destroy the 
constitutional balance, and weaken our institutions, than any other 
inherent defect of our system, or, perhaps, all others combined. 
* * What the country needs for pacification is a President 
without a policy. Such a one we shall have in Gen. Grant. He 
is, moreover, an advocate of the One-Term principle, as conduct- 
ing toward the proper administration of the law — a principle with 
which so many prominent Republicans have identified themselves 
that it may be accepted as an article of party faith." — June 3d. 

" Let not Congress adjourn without passing the One-Term 
amendment to the Constitution. There has never been so favor- 
able an opportunity. ^A.11 parties are in favor of it. The present 
incumbent of the Presidential office has no inducement to oppose 
it. Nobody's sensibilities can be offended by it. It cannot be 
charged as a party movement intended to head off an obnoxious 
President. Gen. Grant is in favor of it. The party which sup- 
ports Gen. Grant demands it, and, above all else, public morality 
calls for it. Let us never again witness the utter debasement of 
the Presidential office by the efforts of the incumbent to secure a 
second term. The second term makes the first a period of chican- 
ery. It is the fertile germ of ' Executive Policy,' and brings forth 
a fearful crop of treachery and lies. 



224 LIFE AND CAREER OF HORACE GREELEY. 

"It is the fomenter of divisions between the Departments, and 
the inducer of Execmtive usurpations. It is a constant peril to the 
liberties of the country. Not a man or a party in the country 
worth counseling with wishes the President to be eligible to a re- 
election. If the opportunity is lost, and we wait until after the 
next Presidential election, we shall run counter to some supposed 
personal or party interest in re-opening this subject. Then why 
wait ? "—July 14th. 

— In view of these recorded, notorious facts, we ask a candid 
public to judge whether the Time's imputation is consistent with 
either truth or decency. 




CHAPTER V 

HORACE GREELEY AS AN EDITOR. 



the very bottom of all Horace Greeley's busy life 
a good physical, and a good mental organization, 
admirably adapted to each other for industry, perseverance and 
endurance, together with breadth of thought and powers for dis- 
cussion. 

PHRENOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF HORACE GREELEY. 

"The head of Horace Greeley measures twenty-three and a 
half inches around individuality and philoprogenitiveness, and is, 
with all, uncommonly high ; so its mass of brain is really very 
great. Few heads measure as much, and few are as high ; two 
conditions which, collectively, indicate a brain of almost the largest 
size. Next, his body and brain are uncommonly active. This is 
abundantly indicated by his light, fine hair, thin skin, light com- 
plexion and general delicacy of structure. But for the fact that 
he takes first rate care of his health, his powerful brain would 
soon prostrate his body. He works with great ease, and accom- 
plishes much with a comparatively small expenditure of vitality. 
His abstinence from all stimulants, his extreme cleanliness, and 
his careful regard to health in all his habits, have given him full 
possession of his power, both of body and of mind — in short, 
considering the great amount of work he does, his correct habits 
are his salvation. Not only is Mr. Greeley's brain large, but it 
is also in the right place. It is not wide, round or conical, but it 
is narrow, long and high. His developments indicate anything 
but selfishness or animality. On the contrary, they show him to 
be generous, philanthropic, lofty in his aims, elevated, noble 
minded, and governed by the higher sentiments and intellect. 
15 



226 HORACE GREELEY 

The hight and length of his head and its length on the top, or 
the great mass of brain, in the region of the moral sentiments 
are very conspicuous ; while the length of the head forward of the 
ears, and the hight and massive breadth of his forehead, indicate 
great strength of thought and comprehensiveness of mind. His 
controlling organs are benevolence, adhesiveness, firmness and 
conscientiousness. These organs are seldom found larger, and 
account for the high moral, reformatory, and progressive turn 
which he gives to his politics, even — one of the last subjects to 
which men are accustomed to attach reformatory doctrines and 
measures. This development would predispose him to advocate 
the right, both on its own account and because it furthers that 
cause of humanity which benevolence loves, and labors to secure 
the possessor of such an organization, he could not be other than 
reformatory, and a sincere and devoted lover of his race. And this 
predisposition is still farther strengthened by his possessing oily 
moderate veneration, so that he would not cling to the antiquated, 
but forgetting the past, would embrace whatever new things prom- 
ise to ameliorate suffering humanity, or advance mankind. Such 
powerful conscientiousness as his would likewise search out the 
right of things and be governed by it ; and such predominant 
firmness would plant itself on the ground of right and humanity, 
and abide there without the least shadow of turning. His oppo- 
sition to War, Slavery and Capital Punishment, and his desire to 
aid laboring men in associating, to become their own employers, 
fully evince the vigor of those organs ; while on the contrary his 
smaller destructiveness and acquisitiveness tend to make him rela- 
tively disinterested and unselfish. Philoprogenitiveness being large, 
accounts, in part, for the active interest he takes in education. 

Approbativeness is prominently developed. This gives ambi- 
tion, and, in concert with his large intellectual and moral organs, 
a desire to become distinguished in the intellectual and moral 
world. Love of reputation for morals, truthfulness, purity and 
integrity is a leading characteristic, and accordingly his private 
character is unsullied. 

His self-esteem is only fair — just about strong enough to pre- 



AS AN EDITOR. 227 

vent trifling, but not enough to create self-sufficiency. It is sup- 
ported by ample corubativeness and firmness, giving the love of 
liberty, power of will, and the true republican feeling, so that 
nothing can crush him ; but the more he is driven, " the more he 
won't go." His secretiveness is full, while cautiousness is large. 
This gives a due degree of policy and discretion ; yet, in combi- 
nation with his high moral organs, prevents deception and cun- 
ning. His continuity is weak. Hence his remarkable versatility 
of talent, and that short, pithy, spicy variety which characterizes 
his writings. This organic condition, combined with an active 
temperament and strong intellectual faculties, bring its possessor 
right to the point, enables him to say much in little, and disposes 
him to pass to another point, perhaps before the previous one is 
fully completed. 

His imitation and ideality are not large, hence he is not very 
attentive to matters of fashion and personal appearance. 

His mirthfulness is large, and acting with his combativeness, 
makes his reviews of opponents and their arguments both cutting 
and pungent. 

His intellectual development is uncommonly large and well bal- 
anced. It has scarcely a weak point, but contains many strong 
ones. Its forte consists of very large eventuality and comparison. 
The former remembers, and the latter compares history, political 
affairs, election returns, and that vast range of miscellaneous 
knowledge of which he is so complete a master. These organs, 
in combination with his predominant benevolence, friendship, con- 
scientiousness and firmness, more than all his other faculties 
combined, have raised him to his commanding post of influence, 
and lead off in his character. These are also supported by uncom- 
monly large casuality ; hence the clearness and cogency of his ar- 
guments, and his copious flow of thought and sense. His language 
is good, but much less than the reasoning or thought manufactur- 
ing organs — sufficient to furnish words enough, and just the words 
for the pen, yet too little for fluency in extempore speaking." 

Anthropologically considered, Mr. Greeley has a large and 
well constructed frame ; by nature born of the granite and stw> 



228 HORACE GREELEY 

dier elements of bleak New England ; by parentage, of industry, 
frugality and trying and enduring toil. So well and harmoniously 
developed, is his physical organization, that it is difficult to de- 
tect to what manner of disease, if to any, his frame is most readily 
exposed. The bones, muscles, blood and nerves of his organiza- 
tion are all well and harmoniously combined, and in ample 
proportions. The organization is well supplied with life and vi- 
tality, and directed by the mind which rules and guides in its 
commodious mansion, the cerebrum. Such is Mr. Greeley's evenly 
balanced organization, that, although it is delicate in its structure, 
care, such as he has been taking with himself, will enable him to 
endure a long life. With a highly developed nervous or intellec- 
tual temperament, supported by a good development of the bilious, 
or enduring, and of the sanguine or industrious temperaments, Mr. 
Greeley entered upon life well fitted by nature to endure great 
mental labor, and earnestly contend in the struggle of conflicting 
ideas among the world's people. His organic quality is good, and 
with his large brain and special elements of character, he has given 
to the world a marked individuality, as well as a public career of 
unsurpassed success, and real value to his fellows. 

Such is the character of his organization, the proportion of 
bones, blood, muscles and nerves to each other, and a harmonious 
blending of the temperaments, that his health has been generally 
good. Endowed by nature with a superior mentality, and by prefer- 
ence choosing for a vocation the printer's trade, Mr. Greeley's in- 
dustry and uprightness of character led him on from the composing 
reoirii to the editorial sanctum, thus compelling him to lay down 
thttistick and take up the quill ; to change from a printer- boy to a 
proprietor. His remarkable industry and mental abilities recom- 
mended him to the favor of all sensible people who made his ac- 
quaintance, and notwithstanding poverty, hard times and ob- 
serasrityjlhe was enabled, by the co-operation and encouragement of 
friends, ^o organize a little printing concern in the city of New 
York"i^rthe year 1833, in the hope that he and his partners might 
bfenguogresfeful in building up a business of profit, and were wil- 
liugfjtobembark in the undertaking for themselves, with smaU 



AS AN EDITOR. 229 

capital and a small establishment. Encouraged by having a busi- 
ness for himself, his love of literature and ardent desire to engage 
in its pursuit and its discussion, soon led him to conceive the pro- 
ject of publishing a newspaper. The project was not long upon 
his mind before a new journal, 

THE NEW-YORKER, 

Was heralded to the public with the name of Horace Greeley as 
editor and general manager, at the head of its columns. It was a 
large and cheap weekly folio, afterward changed to a double 
quarto, and devoted mainly to current literature, but giving regu- 
larly a digest of all important news, including a careful exhibit 
and summary of election returns and other political intelligence. 
The first number of the New - Yorker was issued March 22, 1834. 
It was the birth of a new literary agency, whereby if possible to 
enlighten its readers and enrich its publishers. The New - Yorker 
began with scarcely one dozen subscribers, and steadily increased 
to nine thousand. Mr. Greeley continued its publication with un- 
tiring energy and efforts through varying fortunes for seven years 
and a half. It proved to be a paper of great merit and won the 
confidence and praise of its readers. It was greatly in advance of 
previous publications of a similar character, and gave favorable 
signs of a new departure of the American mind to a broader and 
more real intellectual development than was known to preceding 
years ; yet for this gracious gift the public was ungrateful. The 
publication of the New-Yorker did not prove a financial success, 
but rather did it require a terrible struggle on the part of its pro- 
prietors to keep it alive. The general financial embarrassments of 
the country bore heavily upon its business interests, and so trying 
were the times that Mr. Greeley, in October, 1837, published 
the following plain and truthful statement, as an earnest appeal to 
the patrons of the New - Yorker, for the support which was justly 
due its proprietors : 

Ours is a plain story, and it shall be plainly told. The New- 
Yorlcer was established with very moderate expectations of pecu- 
niary advantage, but with strong hopes that its location at the 



230 HORACE GREELEY 

headquarters of intelligence for the continent, and its cheapness, 
would insure it, if well conducted, such a patronage as would be 
ultimately adequate, at least to the hare expenses of its publication. 
Starting- with scarce a shadow of patronage, it had four thousand 
five hundred subscribers at the close of the first year, obtained at 
an outlay of three thousand dollars beyond the income in that per- 
iod. This did not materially disappoint the publishers' expecta- 
tions. Another year passed and their subscription increased to 
seven thousand, with a further outlay, beyond all receipts of two 
thousand dollars. A third year was commenced with two editions 
— folio and quarto — of our journal, and at its close, their conjoint 
subscriptions amounted to near nine thousand five hundred ; yet 
our receipts had again fallen two thousand dollars behind our ab- 
solutely necessary expenditures. Such was our situation at the 
commencement of this year of ruin ; and we found ourselves wholly 
unable to continue our former reliance on the honor and ultimate 
good faith of our backward subscribers. Two thousand five hun- 
dred of them were stricken from our list, and every possible re- 
trenchment of our expenditures effected. With the exercise of the 
most parsimonious frugality, and aided by the extreme kindness 
and generous confidence of our friends, we have barely and with 
great difficulty kept our bark afloat. For the future, we have no 
resource but in the justice and generosity of our patrons. Our 
humble portion of this world's goods has long since been swallowed 
up in the all-devouring vortex ; both of the editor's original asso- 
ciates in the undertaking, have abandoned it with loss, and those 
who now fill their places have invested to the full amount of their 
ability. Not a farthing has been drawn from the concern by any- 
one save for services rendered ; and the allowance to the proprie- 
tors having charge respectively of the editorial and publishing de- 
partments, has been far less than their services would have com- 
manded elsewhere. The last six months have been more disastrous 
than any which preceded them, as we have continued to fall behind 
our expenses without a corresponding increase of patronage. A 
large amount is indeed due us, but we find its collection almost im- 
possible, except in inconsiderable portions and at a ruinous 
expense. All appeals to the honesty and good faith of the delin- 
quents seem utterly fruitless. As a last resource, therefore, and 
one beside which we have no alternative, we hereby announce, that 
from and after this date, the price of the New-Yorker will be three 
dollars per annum for the folio, and four dollars for the quarto edi- 
tion. 
Friends of the New-Yorker! Patrons! We appeal to you, not 



AS AN EDITOR. 231 

for charity, but for justice. "Whoever among you is in our debt, no 
matter how small the sum, is guilty of a moral wrong in withhold- 
ing the payment. We bitterly need it. We have a right to expect 
it. Six years of happiness could not atone for the horrors which 
blighted hopes, agonizing embarrassments, and gloomy apprehen- 
sions—all arising in great measure from your neglect-have conspired 
to heap upon us during the last six months. We have borne all in 
silence: we now tell you, we must have our pay. Our obligations 
for the last two months are alarmingly heavy, and they must be 
satisfied, at whatever sacrifice. We shall cheerfully give up what- 
ever may remain to us of property and mortgage years of future 
exertion, sooner than incur a shadow of dishonor by subjecting 
those who have credited us to loss or inconvenience. We must pay ; 
and for the means of doing it, we appeal most earnestly to you. It 
is possible that we might still further abuse the kind solicitude of 
our friends, but the thought is agony. We should be driven to what 
is but a more delicate mode of beggary, when justice from those 
who withhold the hard earnings of our increasing toil, would place 
us above the revolting necessity. At any rate, we will not submit 
to the humiliation without an effort. 

We have struggled until we can no longer doubt that, with the 
present currency — and there seems little hope of an immediate im- 
provement — we cannot live at our former prices. The suppression 
of small notes was a blow to cheap city papers, from which there 
is no hope of recovery. With a currency, including notes of two 
and three dollars, one-half of our receipts would come to us directly 
from the subscribers ; without such notes, we must submit to an 
agent's charge on nearly every collection. Besides, the notes from 
the south-western States are now at from twenty to thirty per cent, 
discount, and have been more ; those from the west, range from 
six to twenty. All notes beyond the Delaware River, range from 
twice to ten times the discount charged u pon them when we started 
the New-Yorker. We cannot afford to depend exclusively upon the 
patronage to be obtained in our immediate neighboi'hood ; we can- 
not retain distant patronage without receiving the money in which 
alone our subscribers can pay. But one course, then, is left us — to 
tax our valuable patronage with the delinquencies of the worse 
than worthless — the paying for the non-paying, and those who owe 
us par-money, with the evils of our present depraved and depreciat- 
ing currency. 

Having passed the struggle of 1837, the publication was con- 



232 HORACE GREELEY 

tinued with less pecuniary embarassment, bat not at all as a mon- 
ey-making enterprise. 

The American people were not yet a newspaper people ; much 
less a literary people. Telegraph lines, railways and steamships, 
had not yet revivified the mind of man. The population of the 
country was still sparce, and the readers but few. So the finan- 
cial struggles of the JVew- Yorker must be accounted as belonging 
more particularly to the times, than caused by disfavors shown to 
its proprietors, by either Providence or the people. 

In October, 1839, Park Benjamin withdrew from the editorial 
staff of the JVew- Yorker, and published in the issue of the 19th 
that month, his valedictory, as follows, with Mr. Greeley's ap- 
pended remarks to the patrons of the paper : 

VALEDICTORY. 

As a sojourner, taking leave of a pleasant country, in which he 
has long tarried, to remove to another, which has also its goodly 
prospects and scenes, 1 now bid a regretful adieu to the New- 
Yorker, and enter upon a new field of cditoi'ial exertion. It may 
not be unknown to many of tbe readers of this journal, that the 
subscribers have, during three months past, participated in the 
charge of a Lillipnt daily sheet, called the evening Tatler, as well 
as of a Brobdignag weekly paper, issued under the English-derived 
title of Brother Jonathan. With the last issue of the latter publi- 
cation, his colleague and himself withdrew from a disagreeable con- 
nection, and, in conjunction with a publisher of discrimination and 
good sense, established the evening Signal, and its weekly cora- 
pend, the New World. A single week's experience in the conduct 
of these journals, has convinced me that I cannot do equal justice 
to them and the New-Yorker. The double duty would divide and 
distract my attention ; and, while I might, by exertion, perform the 
amount of required labor, I could not perform it with that freedom 
and satisfaction, so essential to a grateful execution of my tasks. 
Impressed with this conviction, I have resigned my chair as liter- 
ary editor of this paper, and now appear, under my own name, to 
bid its readers a respectful farewell. 

Grateful to my feelings has been my intercourse with the readers 
of the New-Yorker, and with its principal editor and proprietor. 

By the former, I hope my humble efforts will not be unremem- 
bered ; by the latter, I am happy to believe that the sincere friend- 



AS AN EDITOR. 233 

ship which I entertain for him, is reciprocated. I still insist upon 
my editorial right, so far as to say, in opposition to any veto which 
my coadjutor may interpose, that I cannot leave the association, 
which has been so agreeable to me, without paying to sterling 
worth, unbending integrity, high moral principle and ready kind- 
ness, their just due. 

These qualities exist in the character of the man with whom I 
now part ; and by all, to whom such qualities appear admirable, 
must such a character be esteemed. 

His talents, his industry, require no commendation from me ; the 
readers of this journal know them too well ; the public is sufficiently 
aware of the manner in which they have been exerted. 

What I have said, has flowed from my heart; tributary rather to 
its own emotions, than to the subject which has called them forth ; 
his plain, good name, is his best eulogy. 

When I entered upon the literary charge which I thus yield, I did 
so with the quiet determination that, whatever severity of animad- 
version J might draw down upon myself and my own compositions, 
I would, to the last, be rigidly just in my criticisms, swayed neither 
by power nor favor. 

Perseverance in this resolution has been at times hard, very hard : 
I have often wished to commend the productions of a friend more 
highly than they deserved ; I have, in one or two instances, longed 
to lash a literary pretender who had proclaimed himself my foe, by 
low personal allusion and ribald abuse. In both cases have I re- 
frained ; following with steady exactitude the course which I had 
marked out. This has been happy for me ; I have preserved the 
public regard, and, what is quite as valuable, my self-esteem. Con- 
scious of having been unbiased by friendship, I am, at this moment, 
equally conscious of being unembittered by dislike. I feel no en- 
mities, however many may be entertained toward myself; those 
that oppressed me, have long since gone ; my bosom is cleansed of 
all "such perilous stuff." 

I would say nothing out of taste, or that can be reprehended as 
egotistical ; yet I have ventured thus to intrude myself upon you, 
complacent readers, that you may see me as I am, without either 
prejudice or prepossession, as I enter upon a new career. If there 
be those who, from the evidence which has been laid before them 
in this paper, prejudge unfavorably for my future efforts, my ab- 
sence from its columns will cause them no regret ; if, on the con- 
trary, there be others who are prepossessed in favor of what I am 
likely to do, they must not desert the New-Yorker, but take, as its 
companion, the New World. 



234 HORACE GREELEY 

That will henceforth he my organ of communication; for it "will 
contain all the editorial matter of the evening Signal, besides all 
its selections. 

These selections will, doubtless, in the view of literary readers, 
be its most valuable feature; for they will be gathered from the 
richest treasures of native and foreign genius. 

Complete arrangements have been made for the receipt, at the 
earliest possible period, of all books and periodicals issued at home 
and abroad, which are recommended by the charm of novelty as 
well as their intrinsic excellence. 

But we shall not confine ourselves to these alone ; our paper be- 
ing of a most capacious size, we shall be enabled to embellish its 
columns with the "quaint and golden ornaments " of old literature, 
no less than with the fashionable splendors of what is new. To the 
public at large, and especially to that portion of it out of the city, 
the New World will be of most value on account of its full com- 
pend of general intelligence. The most strict care will be taken to 
relate all important occurrences in all parts of the Western Hemis- 
phere. In the language of the prospectus: "Our newspapers in 
general, contain full accounts of all that happens in the old world, 
even to the most trivial occurrences, which can be of little or no 
interest to our people ; while they omit or neglect much that is of 
consequence from the various countries of the new. The New 
World will be found to be worthy of its name from its full summary 
of all the important events that may transpire between Behring's 
Straits and Cape Horn. It will, at the same time, give all the in- 
teresting items of intelligence which may be brought from beyond 
the Atlantic." 

In the conduct of the paper, I am associated with Mr. Rufus W. 
Griswold, who, to great editorial ability and long experience, adds 
a consummate tact, which seems to be a gift in itself, possessed by 
very few, and therefore of high value when possessed. 

Mr. Greeley has requested me to prepare certain notices of new 
works which have been lately received ; but I am, at this time, un- 
fitly constituted for a duty which has always been so pleasing. I 
can but repeat my apology for thus presenting myself to our read- 
ers, and occupying space that might have been more profitably de- 
voted. I can write, as editor of the New-Yorker, but one word 
more— "Farewell." Park Benjamin. 

(J3T The patrons and readers of the New-Yorker will have been 
apprised by the above valedictory, of the loss they and we have 
sustained in the regretted withdrawal of Mr. Benjamin from the 
associate editorship of this paper. For the present, the entire con- 



AS AN EDITOR. 235 

duct of the paper devolves on the undersigned, who will spare no 
exertions to render it a journal worthy of the character it bears, 
and the patronage it has acquired. 

Arrangements are now in progress, which, when completed, if 
they should not add essentially to the editorial strength of the 
paper, will, at any rate, effect the same end, by relieving the under- 
signed of the weight of business cares and duties, which have hith- 
erto distracted his time and attention too considerably from his 
more congenial editorial duties. 

These arrangements will be announced as soon as perfected ; 
meantime, it is hoped, that few of the present patrons of the New- 
Yorker will see reason to desert it, even though it boast no abler 
editor than the public's obliged and grateful servant, 

Horace Greeley. 

The next issue, October 26, 1839, of the New- Yorker, con- 
tained the following earnest words f onn Mr. Greeley, in favor of 
its support : 

A CHAT WITH OUR FRIENDS. 

There is a time, saith the wise man, for everything; and we 
thence conclude that there must be a season even for egotism ; 
though our tastes and habits unite to indicate that our season for 
displaying it should recur but seldom. 

Yet as there is, or should be a time for the betrayal, even of 
this unattractive quality — pardonable in a journalist, if in any- 
body — we have concluded that the fit shall visit us at this present, 
when a partial change in the editorship of the New-Yorker, would 
seem to render some exposition of its standing and prospects 
highly proper, if not necessary. None can be more fully aware 
than we, of the utter indifference of that leviathan, the public, to any 
matter so insignificant as the prosperity, or adversity of a journal 
or its publishers. 

Neither do we write expecting or requesting audience of the 
thousands who constitute the patrons, or readers of our own 
paper. But there are a portion of these — we would fain hope that 
they number some hundreds — who have come to regard themselves 
as the friends of the journal or its editor, who feel an interest, 
more or less lively in our success, and who would not willingly 
neglect an opportunity of contributing to it. It is to this limited 
portion of our readers, only, that these remarks are addressed ; the 
others will hardly have read thus far to be told that this article 
will not interest them. 



236 HORACE GREELEY 

On resuming the entire conduct of this paper, of which a por- 
tion has, for a year past, "been ahly fashioned by other hands, it 
seems but fitting that we should be indulged in a brief egotistical 
colloquy with those who may allow ns to call them our friends. 

Five years and a half have now elapsed since — y oung in years, 
poor even in friends, and utterly unknown to the public — we gave 
to the world the first number of the New-Yorker. (A journal 
with this title had been published for a few months, the preceding 
summer, but was in no wise connected with our own enterprise.) 
On the 22nd of March, 1834, we spread our sail to the breeze, 
backed by the moderate earnings of two or three years of success- 
ful industry, the good wishes of some forty friends, (mostly humble 
ones, whose good wishes were all the aid they could afford us) a 
sanguine spirit, (our experience has been mainly acquired since 
then,) and about twenty subscribers. Heaven bless them for their 
generous reliance in advance upon our editorial capacities, of which 
they could have had small evidence beforehand. Or, if they gave 
their names mainly out of personal kindness, our obligation is 
deeper still. 

We went forward thence through three years, with little worth 
recalling in our fortunes, save an entire consumption of our 
property by fire, in August, 1835, and the commencement of our 
quarto edition, in March, 1836. 

Through the first two years, our patronage increased pretty 
steadily, at the rate of fifty subscribers per week, and through the 
third (with our two editions) somewhat faster; so that at the close 
of the latter year, we were printing of our two editions, some 
9,000 copies per week. Then came the year of disaster, in which 
we were doomed, in common with thousands of others, to see the 
fair fabric of our seeming prosperity fade away like a vision, leav- 
ing in its stead but debt, embarrassment, and a depression which 
was almost despair. The arduous and long dubious contest with 
adversity of that calamitous year, left us with but two-thirds of 
our subscription, and a debt of no pleasant magnitude, which is 
not even yet wholly overcome. 

The currency distractions and fluctuations which then com- 
menced, rendering the money we received from our distant sub- 
scribers, worth far less to us than its nominal amount, constrained 
us to enhance somewhat the price of our journal ; and this, though 
cheerfully acceded to by the great mass of our then patrons, has 
doubtless contributed to prevent any rapid accessions to our list 
during subsequent years. 

However, since the close of the year of ruin, we have pursued 



AS AN EDITOR. 237 

the tenor of our way with such fortune as has beeu vouchsafed us ; 
and, if never elated with any signal evidence of popular favor, we 
have not since been doomed to gaze fixedly for months into the 
yawning abyss of ruin, and feel a moral certainty that, however 
averted for a time, this must be our goal at last. On the contrary, 
our affairs have slowly but steadily improved for some time past, 
and we now hope that a few months more will place us beyond the 
reach of pecuniary embarrassments, and enable us to add new at- 
tractions to our journal. And this word " attraction " brings us to 
the confession that the success of our enterprise, if success there 
has been, has not been at all of a pecuniary cast thus far. Prob- 
ably we lack the essential elements of that very desirable kind of 
success. There have been errors, and mismanagement, and losses, 
in the conduct of our business ; but more of that anon. "We mean 
here that we lack, or do not take kindly to the arts which con- 
tribute to a newspaper sensation. 

"When our journal first appeared, a hundred copies marked the 
extent to which the public curiosity claimed its perusal. Others 
establish new papers, even without literary reputation, as we 
were, and five or ten thousand copies are taken at once, just to see 
what the new thing is. And thence they career onward, on the 
crest of a towering wave. 

Since the New-Yorker was first issued, seven co-partners in its 
publication have successively withdrawn from the concern — gener- 
ally, we regret to say, without having improved their fortunes by 
the connection, and most of them with a conviction that the work, 
however valuable, was not calculated to prove lucrative to its pro- 
prietors. " You don't humbug enough," has been the complaint 
of more than one of our retiring associates ; " you ought to make 
more noise, " and vaunt your own merits. The world will never 
believe you "print a good paper, unless you tell them so." Our 
course has not been changed by these representations. 

"We have endeavored in all things to maintain our own respect, 
and deserve the good opinion of- others; if we have not succeeded 
m the latter particular, the failure is much to be regretted, but 
nardly to be amended by pursuing the vaporous course indicated. 

If our journal be a good one, those who read it will be very apt 
to discover the fact ; if it be not, our assertion of its excellence, 
however positive and frequent, would scarcely outweigh the 
weekly evidence still more abundantly and convincingly furnished, 
"We are aware that this view of the case is controverted by prac- 
tical results in some cases ; but we are content with the old 



238 HORACE GREELEY 

course, and have never envied the success which merit or pretence 
may attain, hy acting as its own trumpeter. 

A new avenue to public favor has lately been discovered im- 
proved, in the publication of journals on the largest possible sheets 
of paper, with the view of tempting patronage, by an imposing dis- 
play of columns, and square feet of surface. The design is eminently 
adapted to the tastes of our people, who are rather noted in in- 
tellectual matters for preferring geniuses who impart Greek in six 
lessons, and the whole circle of human science in thirty, and school- 
masters who teach at ten dollars a month, to those that have the 
presumption to ask twenty. 

Yet the idea of printing mammoth sheets at a large price is by no 
means necessarily a bad one ; we demur only to the inference that 
the largest journal must necessarily be the best. 

If Congress shall make no alteration in the post-office enactions 
calculated to clip the Avings of the broad sheets, and if it shall be 
deemed desirable by our friends that the New-Yorker should ex- 
tend its borders, we shall commence our next volume on a sheet 
large as is compatible with its perfect and rapid execution. 

Still the ambition of printing the largest sheet in the world, is 
one not likely to animate our exertions. We have never essayed, 
and never expect to eclipse our cotemporaries, after that fashion. 
We hope to issue a fair sheet, unembittered by the violence of party, 
untainted by the breath of licentiousness. We seek to present a 
quiet but faithful picture of the passing world, one which the 
reader of the day may scan with profit, and to which he may recur 
hereafter with reliance and satisfaction. If we but succeed in 
these efforts, and secure that humble niche in the world's good 
opinion which shall enable us to pursue our course without diffi- 
culty or embarrassment, we shall look with a composure devoid 
even of wonder, upon the career of those who, starting but yes- 
terday, rush past us with lightning speed, and, while we are toil- 
ing in the outset of our course, have already attained the goal for 
fortune and of fame. Enough of this. We have addressed these 
explanations to the friends of the New-Yorker, who may be sup- 
posed willing to hear occasionally of its progress, and prosperity. 
We have only now to add that our prospects appear brighter than 
for many a day past. 

We can boast no considerable increase of subscribers ; but the 
conviction that a newspaper worth taking, is also worth paying 
for, seems of late to have dawned upon the minds of many among 
our patrons, very much to our advantage and satisfaction. Per- 
haps the process has been quickened in some cases by our own 



AS AN EDITOR. 239 

earlier conversion to that same faith, and onr consequent determina- 
tion to strike from our books all subscribers who owed for a 
longer term than one year. We have fixed that as the limit of our 
forbearance, hereafter. We cannot consent to strike a good sub- 
scriber from our books the moment his term of advance payment 
shall have expired ; there is an appearance of rudeness and dis- 
courtesy in this process which is repugnant to our feelings. 

But whenever a subscriber has suffered his account to run behind 
a year, the presumption is a fair one, that he does not like the journ- 
al well enough to pay for it, in which case, we certainly do not 
wish to send it to him. 

Henceforth, at the end of every quarter, our books will be 
scrutinized, and every subscriber who has fallen more than a year 
behind, will be suspended until we hear from him. We believe 
this rule will prove satisfactory to all who intend to pay ; from the 
opposite class we have received so bountiful a patronage in times 
past, that we could well afford to dispense with their favors here- 
after. In conclusion, we would gladly return our fervent thanks 
to the friends whose exertions have contributed so greatly to the 
measure of prosperity, and patronage we enjoy. 

But acknowledgments conveyed through the chilling medium 
of a public journal, to be read by cold and careless thousands, are 
of little worth ; our friends will better feel the gratitude we 
shrink from expressing. May our future course justify, though it 
cannot require, their generous exertions. 

On the 4th of September, 1841, the following card from Mr. 
Greeley, appeared in the New- Yorker : 

TO THE PATRONS OF THE NEW-YORKER. 

The undersigned respectfully announces that the publication of 
the New-Yorker, under that title, will cease with its next number, 
being the last of the eleventh quarto volume, and be succeeded on 
the Saturday following, by the first number of the New York 
weekly Tribune, a much larger, more spirited, and we trust, to a 
majority of our readers, a more attractive journal. It will be con- 
ducted by him who has throughout been editor of the JVeiv- York- 
er, ably assisted in its literary, commercial, and news depart- 
ments. It will appear in a quarto form, (eight large pages to each 
number,) and be sent to each subscriber, to the Neto-Yorker, who 
shall not intimate a wish that it be withheld. To our folio subscrib- 
ers, it will be served for the full term of their advanced payments ; 
to the quarto, once and a half that term — that is, to all who have 



240 HORACE GREELEY 

paid six months in advance, nine months, and so for a longer or 
shorter term. Yet it is possible that some of our subscribers may 
dislike the political cast of the Tribune, and prefer a paper of a 
different character. To such -we offer to send (by arrangement 
"with its publisher), the popular and non-political mammoth paper 
the New World, to the full amount of our indebtedness ; and, 
if this alternative is not acceptable, we will cheerfully refund the 
money that may be due them. "We trust that at any rate we shall 
part friends with those who now choose to leave us. 

To those, if any, who may be disposed to murmur at the discon- 
tinuance of the New-Yorker, we have time this week but to say, 
that, after seven and a half years unremitting toil in this paper, 
which has brought us more praise than pence, we have finally em- 
barked in the conduct, and publication of the New York Tribune, 
with flattering prospects and high hopes of success. A weekly is- 
sue of that paper is loudly called for by many friends ; we can make 
a larger, in many respects better paper, at less expense than we can 
continue the New- Yorker, without materially modifying its char- 
acter ; but above all, the change we contemplate will considerably 
diminish the incessant, out-wearying toil to which we have been 
subjected since we commenced the Tribune. Are not these consid- 
erations sufficient? Hespectfully, 

Horace Greeley. 

On Saturday, September 11, 1841, the publication of the 
New- Yorker was. discontinued. The last number contained the 
following notice : 

TO OUR PATRONS. 

The present, is the last number of the New-Yorker, which will 
be issued under that title. On Saturday next, we shall issue the 
first number of the New York Weekly Tribune, a much larger, 
and, so far as regards the extent, freshness and variety of its intel- 
ligence, a better paper than we have been able to make the New- 
Yorker. It will be a political journal — openly, decidedly, ardently 
Whig in its opinions and inculcations, but carried temperate in all 
things, and careful to be accurate and just in all its statements. We 
hope to render the change an advantageous and acceptable one to 
the great mass of our readers ; but there will be some who will dis- 
like the political character of the paper, and possibly others — Avho 
can only have been born in a free country by mistake — who dislike 
all politics whatever. To these we shall be happy to send that ex- 
cellent and popular mammoth literary sheet, the New World, to 



AS AN EDITOR 241 

the full amount for which they stand credited on our books. This 
is the best alternative we can think of; but those who are still dis- 
satisfied, may Lave their money refunded by applying for it. Can 
they ask more ? 

A word now to old friends : — Seven and a half years ago, we com- 
menced this paper, in company with two other young men, who 
long since seceded from it, to engage in more promising avocations. 
We had few acquaintances even, in this city or vicinity — very few 
friends whose kindness could stand instead of the experience and 
capital of which our stock was so slender. We had less than fifty 
subscribers ; and for a year, our receipts bore no proportion to our 
necessary expenditures. The system of unlimited credits for news- 
papers, then so universally in vogue, now so generally and happily 
exploded, greatly diminished the receipts to which we were fairly 
entitled, while our inexperience in business matters formed another 
serious drawback. Commercial revulsions and currency derange- 
ments soon followed, constraining lis in 1837 to cut off, at one blow, 
a third of the circulation we had slowly and arduously acquired. 
But we persevered through all ; and if its publishers have not real- 
ized pecuniary advantages from the paper, they have, at least, been 
careful that none others should suffer loss. Considering the times 
through which we have passed, this is a proud consolation. 

The editorial charge of the New-Yorker has from the first, devolv- 
ed on him who now addresses its readers, some of whom have 
been its patrons from the commencement. Their judgment must 
determine with what integrity and fidelity his duties have been per- 
formed. At times he has been aided in the literary department by 
gentlemen of decided talent and eminence ; at others, the entire 
conduct has rested with him. Stern necessity has often required 
the devotion of a part of his time to other employments, while his 
ardent political convictions have drawn still deeper upon the hours 
which would otherwise have been given to the New-Yorker. The 
consequences of his name and exertions being thus blended with the 
party struggles of the time, have been injurious to the standing 
which this journal has endeavored to maintain, as an impartial rec- 
ord of transpiring events, and has tended to abridge its circulation ; 
this was hardly avoidable, at least it is too late to regret. 

We volunteer no professions of disinterestedness — no protesta- 
tions of integrity. If we have done well, those who have read our 
paper know it. We cherish a hope that our editorial course in the 
New-Yorker, however unfruitful otherwise, has won us some 
friends, whose good opinion is of value, and whose kindness will 



16 



242 HORACE GREELEY 

follow us into the new path Ave have chosen. If so, our seven years' 
labor will have secured its reward. 

Thus Mr. Greeley bade farewell to the patrons and friends of 
the Neiv- Yorker, in an honest and plain manner with a candid 
statement of the facts of its varying fortune. 

During the existence of the JVew- Yorker, Mr. Greeley also 
published the Jeffersonian, a campaign paper, which was start- 
ed at Albany, in March, 1838. 

Notwithstanding the Jeffersonian was a campaign paper, its 
editor was careful to give it character and tone, by widening the 
discussions in its columns, so as to embrace education, literature, 
and reformatory subjects, all of which his mind eagerly sought to 
investigate and discuss. 

The first number of the Jeffersonian contained the following 
address : 

TO THE PUBLIC. 

In the month of November last, several citizens of Albany, after 
much consideration and a free interchange of sentiment with their 
friends here and elsewhere, came to the conclusion that the estab- 
lishment and wide circulation of a cheap weekly journal of politi- 
cal intelligence, was highly desirable. Variotis facts and circum- 
stances, then standing prominently forth in the eye of the public, 
had urged to this conclusion. The election, then but lately decid- 
ed, had evinced a great change in the public mind. It had exhib- 
ited the spectacle of a large portion of the people disregarding 
the party ties and associations which had hitherto bound them, 
abandoning their former leaders and favorites, from a devotion 
to what they deemed the paramount interests and general welfare 
of the country — whether rightly or otherwise, we stop not now to 
determine. The fountains of the great deep of politics seemed to 
be almost broken up ; the lines of party demarcation were disre- 
garded, and freemen were everywhere inquiring — not what course 
would best subserve the purposes of a party, but what would best 
promote and sustain the great interests of the country, and tend to 
remove the heavy load of evils then and still bearing with a crush- 
ing and palsying weight upon the entire community. Party preju- 
dices and personal idolatry seemed to have been measurably 
swept away by the overwhelming tide of awakened public senti- 



AS AN EDITOR. 243 

merit, and its place supplied by a watchful and earnest regard to 
principles, to measures, and the general welfare. This state of 
public feeling was general, though not universal ; and its existence 
appeared in a great degree commensurate with, and governed by 
the facilities ordinarily afforded for the ample diffusion of correct 
political intelligence. 

The Jeffersonian then, was undertaken to supply a notorious 
and vital deficiency — to furnish counties aud neighborhoods not 
otherwise provided with correct and reliable information upon po- 
litical subjects, and to furnish it at such a price as to place it abso- 
lutely within the reach of all. Devoted solely to the temperate dis- 
cussion of public measures, and the elucidation of the true princi- 
ples of republican liberty, it is fondly hoped by its projectors and 
editor that this work will be made the instrument of good — that 
light and truth will be disseminated through its columns and that 
through its means many thousands will hereafter be enabled to ap- 
proach the ballot-boxes with a more clear and perfect understand- 
ing and appreciation of the great questions which they are there 
called to decide. Freemen of New York ! is our purpose com- 
mendable ? If yea, we respectfully solicit your countenance and 
co-operation. 

It will be seen that the Jeffersonian is not a party paper in the 
ordinary acceptation of that term. It is our purpose to present 
the views of public men on both sides of the great political ques- 
tions of the day, and to exhibit, as far as may be, the sentiments 
and opinions of all. We shall claim the right, in common with oth- 
ers, of expressing our own convictions in the language of candor, 
temperance and truth. In so doing, we hope to give no offence 
even to those who shall dissent from our conclusions. The time 
has happily arrived when men may differ in their creeds and senti- 
ments without consigning each other, even in spirit, to the stake or 
the gibbet. Holding firmly with the great apostle of democracy 
that " error may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat 
it," we have no fears of the result if the error and the reason are 
submitted side by side to the people. 

One word as to the name under which our humble sheet is pre- 
sented to the public. It has seemed to many friends of the enter- 
prise inconsistent that a jouimal established to inculcate an ever- 
wakeful attention to principles and measures regardless of names 
and of men, should invoke the shade of any individual, however 
honored and deserving, as its watchword. There is certainly force 
in the suggestion, and we had at one time concluded to yield to it. 
But it was found that the change would disappoint more than it 



244 HORACE GREELEY 

would gratify, and the retention of the original name has ultimately 
been resolved on. In doing this, we neither seek to cover any 
errors of our own beneath the mantle of Mr. Jefferson, nor to rep- 
resent him as especially the god of our idolatry. We detest man- 
worship in all its forms and under all devices. Error would find no 
shield from our opposition, even under the great name of Thomas 
Jefferson ; and we ask our readers to give such heed only to onr 
views as right reason would dictate, whatever the auspices under 
which they were presented. It is in his fearlessness and scope of 
investigation, his philosophic and profound spirit of inquiry, his 
cordial and unwavering reliance upon and sympathy with the peo- 
ple, that we would make Mr. Jefferson our exemplar. Like him 
we have a lively and abiding faith in the honesty and right aim of 
the many, and believe that, however misled by prejudice, passion 
or artful misrepresentation, they need only the truth placed fairly 
before them to perceive and be governed by its requisitions. 

Enough. We lay our journal before the people of this State ; if 
they deem it deserving their attention and patronage, we shall hope 
to render it an instrument of good ; if unaided by their favor, it is 
but for a year. Sustained by a proud consciousness of rectitude, Ave 
shall in auy event calmly and unmurmeringly abide their decision. 

Previous to closing the publication of the Jeffersonian, Mr. 
Greeley published, Feb. 2, 1839, the following explanatory 
card : 

TO OUR PATRONS. 

The next number of the Jeffersonian completes a full year of its 
existence, and at the close of the first volume its publication will 
be temporarily suspended. Arrangements are in train for its re-is- 
sue at an early day, and the co-operation of all its friends and well- 
wishers are earnestly solicited to hasten that consummation. 

The Jeffersonian was established by a few patriotic and public- 
spirited citizens of this State, with a view to the dissemination of 
correct and important intelligence regarding our public affairs, di- 
vested of the rancor and bitterness with which political discussions 
are too frequently imbued. While the advancement of education, 
of internal improvement, of moral and intellectual culture, and 
the diffusion of intelligence generally, were regarded as coming 
justly within the scope of our humble journal, it was thought that 
a dispassionate and candid presentment of facts and arguments bear- 
ing upon the political condition of the country, and especially upon 
the new principles and features sought to be engrafted upon the 



AS AN EDITOR. 245 

financial policy of the Federal Government, conld not fail of ex- 
erting a salutary influence. How far those views were correct, and 
how far the conduct of our humble sheet has subserved the inter- 
ests of virtue and truth, and answered the expectations of its 
friends, we shall not attempt to decide. We are content to abide 
the verdict of our readers. 

The Jeffersonian, in its outset, was an experiment, and one 
which seemed to the minds of many of doubtful expediency and 
promise. It was assailed by some from whom a different regard 
had been anticipated, and viewed with distrust by a still larger 
number. Under such auspices, in view of the necessity that the 
paper should be widely circulated to test its usefulness and value, 
the burthen of maintaining it devolved upon a few individuals. It 
is in no respect reasonable or proper that such should continue to 
be the case. During the past year, the Jeffersonian has been afford- 
ed to the mass of its readers at fifty cents per annum — a price 
hardly sufficient to pay for the paper on which it is printed. The 
entire cost of printing, &c, has been a tax on the originators and 
prominent friends of the undertaking. This they will not be re- 
quired to bear any longer. 

The Jeffersonian will continue to be published without any de- 
sire or hope of pecuniary advantage therefrom, and at the lowest 
price for which it can possibly be afforded. Issued without ad- 
vertisements or any of the usual sources of profit, and containing an 
amount of matter much larger than is ordinarily given in a weekly 
newspaper, it will be afforded hereafter at one dollar per annum 
— the second volume to be commenced as soon as five thousand 
names (equal to one-third of its present subscription list) have been 
returned to the publisher, as wishing to continue or become sub- 
scribers, and to pay the price when the first number shall have been 
issued. No money need be forwarded until the reappearance of the 
paper, and no letters will be taken from the Office unless post-paid. 
Our friends throughout the State are requested to make such ex- 
ertions in behalf of our journal as its character in their judgment 
shall merit. 

The Jeffersonian was continued one year, and closed, with the 
following remarks by Mr. Greeley : 

TO OUR READERS. 

From the issue of this number, the publication of the Jefferson- 
ian will be for a season suspended. How long that suspension 
must continue will depend upon the feelings and exertions of its pa- 



246 HORACE GREELEY 

troiis and friends. So soon as five thousand of the present or new 
subscribers shall have signified their desire to take the paper for 
another year, and to pay one dollar for the same upon the receipt 
of the first number, its regular publication will be immediately re- 
sumed. We trust those who feel an interest in our journal, will 
evince it by forwarding the names of subscribers. Meantime, the 
editor returns to his earlier vocation of editor of the New- Yorker, 
a weekly literary and general newspaper, published in the city of 
New York. If any among the readers of the Jeffersonian, who are 
not now subscribers to that work, shall be induced to follow him 
to that theater of his labors, the compliment will be greatly appre- 
ciated. During the past year his attention and exertions have been 
divided between the two papers, in connection with some other 
engagements, and it would not be strange if this one had at some 
times betrayed evidence of inattention. For three weeks only of 
the year has he been absent when this paper went to press ; but no 
consideration has ever induced him to neglect its editorial columns. 
For its general fidelity to the promise of its prospectus, therefore, 
he holds himself responsible ; while for any errors of detail he feels 
entitled to plead the necessities of his double duty requiring bis 
presence each week at two points, one hundred and fifty miles dis- 
tant from each other. Enough of this. Aware, that to many thou- 
sands, his thoughts will now be conveyed for the last time, (even 
though the eaxiy resumption of this paper should be required,) he 
uses the opportunity to indulge in a few parting reflections. 
Having been engaged, through this paper, in the discussion of im- 
portant public questions, bearing upon the exciting political con- 
tents of the day, he feels an abiding gratification in the conscious- 
ness that he has pursued such a course as justly to incur no man's 
censure or ill-will. Having been careful of impugning the motives 
or questioning the honesty of those who may entertain opinions 
contrary to his own — having steadily avoided all scurrility or ma- 
levolence in his writings — he feels that the influence of his papei', 
however humble and transitory, has boen favorable to good morals 
and to a right appreciation of the questions which now divide the 
American people. Having made no assertion that he did not fully 
believe to be true, and advanced no argument that he did not hon- 
estly believe to be sound, he closes his labors for the present with 
a gratifying conviction that they will have been regarded by his 
readers with a respect for his sincerity, however humble may be 
their estimate of his ability. If those readers with whom his inter- 
course now ceases, shall but reciprocate the cordial and kindly 
feeling with which he takes leave of them, he will rejoice to remem- 



AS AN EDITOR. 247 

ber the last year as the most useful and honorable of a busy and 
checkered life. 

THE LOG CABIN. 

Two years after the suspension of the Jeffersonian, Mr. Gree- 
ley was chosen to conduct the Log Cabin, a campaign paper 
published in the interest of General Harrison, who was so victor- 
iously elected by the Whigs in 1840. The Log Cabin was with- 
out doubt, a great success. Mr. Greeley says in his " recol- 
lections of a busy life," that he fixeH the edition of the first 
number of the Log Cabin at 30,000, but before the close of the 
week he was obliged to print 10,000 more ; and even this was too 
few. The weekly edition ran rapidly up to 80,000. The publi- 
cation of the Log Cabin only lasted through the campaign. 

After one year's successful publication of the Jeffersonian, 
which involved an intensely busy season for its editor, its publica- 
tion was suspended, and his full time devoted to the interests of 
the JYew- Yorker. 

With the discontinuance of the New- Yorker, substantially 
closed Mr. Greeley's first editorial career — a career of distinc- 
tion ; begun when he was but twenty-three years of age ; yet 
marked with a talent, a maturity of thought and a sagacity of 
judgment, that belonged, in other men, to riper yeai'S. titt's ac- 
cession to the judges' bench at twenty- five years of age, was not 
more remarkable than Mr. Greeley's accession to an editorial 
chair and general manager of a newspaper, at the age of twenty- 
three. 

Humble birth and varying fortune were not to deter him in a 
strange city, from the life-work and mission for which he was 
born. Each hardship and failure which he met and surmounted, 
were but so many trials and experimental lessons necessary to the 
establishment and success of 

THE TRIBUNE. 

Schooled successively in the editorial department of the New- 
Yorker, the Jeffersonian and the Log Cabin, literary and 



248 HORACE GREELEY 

campaign papers, each marked with ability and made wisely sub- 
servient to the purposes for which they were designed. Mr. Gree- 
ley was afforded valuable education and experience, and though 
young at the time, was the rising editor of the Republic, and des- 
tined to bring into existence the greatest newspaper in the world. 

On the 10th of April, 1841, the first number of the daily Tri- 
bune, one-third its present size, was issued in the city of New 
York. It came into the world a new evangel of mental light and 
liberty, the outward expression of the rising greatness of a man 
whom god had sent into the world to lead the way to a nobler 
work for men and nations. 

The Tribune began with about six hundred subscribers, and, 
from the day of its birth, has been successful. And although Mr. 
Greeley was an ardent and devoted Whig, he gave to the Tri- 
bune an air of independence, unknown to all previous partisan or 
religious papers. He said that his " leading idea was to establish 
a journal, removed alike from servile partisanship on the one hand, 
and from gagged, evincing neutrality on the other." The first 
number of the Tribune contained the following plain talk by Mr. 
Greeley, to the Whigs : 

A PLAIN TALK TO WHIGS. 

Friends : — We claim your attention for Ave minutes, while we 
present some considerations connected with the character and hear- 
ing of the public press — especially the cheap daily press of our city. 
Three journals, professing impartiality in, or independence of party 
politics, now engross the larger portion of the patronage of our 
city. They are the Sun, the morning Herald and the Journal of 
Commerce. The Sun is conducted with decided ability, and made 
up with much industry and care. Its editorial department is gen- 
erally pure in morals, and correct, if not elevated, in its tendency. 
Its advertising columns, indeed, exhibit and reflect, unreproved, 
every species of depravity ; but that is not the fault of its editor. 
But that editor is bitterly, we do not doubt sincerely, locofoco iu 
all his associations and sympathies, and his writings are thoroughly 
imbued with the spirit of his party. That spirit is allowed to gov- 
ern and color the columns of his journal, in violation of all fairnees 
or justice in the Whig party, by whom his paper is in good part 
supported. Two years ago the Whigs lost the city, we believe, 



AS AN EDITOR. 249 

mainly by means of the charges of fraud, peculation and extrava- 
gance against the Whig authorities, which appeared in the editorial 
columns of the Sun. Since then, not a word of reprehension of 
the corporation extravagance has heen heard from that quarter. 
Now the evidence, at least equally strong and condemnatory of 
the misconduct and prodigality of the present authorities, is never 
editorially mentioned or alluded to in that paper. Is this fair ? Is 
it honest ? Is it the treatment which the Whig party have a right 
to expect from a paper on which they yearly bestow a patronage 
of many thousands of dollars ? But the Sun is not satisfied with 
negative hostility. No opportunity to stab effectually our party or 
cause, is suffered to pass unimproved. Every great question of 
national or state policy, is ably, dexterously discussed in its col- 
umns, with much caution and plausibility of manner, but in a spirit 
of the deadliest hostility to the Whigs. The calling of the extra 
session of Congress has been repeatedly condemned in advance by 
it, as a wanton and flagrant abuse of power — a sacrifice of the pub- 
lic good to private ends. The sub-treasury has often been eulo- 
gized and upheld in its columns — less directly, perhaps, but 
meaningly and plausibly. The advantage of a pure specie cur- 
rency, are, from time to time, paraded before the eyes of its 
readers, although its office is a Red-dog bank, and its editor must 
know that a specie currency never will be seriously advocated by 
any considerable party in this country. But what then ? A gentle 
and vague agitation of the project is somehow made to bring grist 
to the mill of the locofocoism, and therefore it is reserved to. A na- 
tional bank is constantly held up in the law as the climax of all 
iniquities and calamities. The distribution project is decried and 
distorted. A protective tariff is most unfairly presented as desir- 
able to cotton manufactures alone, and adverse to the interests ot 
the great mass of the people ! The prosecution of internal im- 
provement by the State, is denounced as unwise, profligate, and 
tending necessarily to enormous taxation, and bankruptcy ; but 
not a word is said of the commencement of the works now in pro- 
gress, by the party which the Sun favors ; of the contracts made 
under the auspices of that party, or of the obligation resting on the 
present State administration, to fulfill those contracts at all events. 
The Governor's controversy with Vii'ginia, is made the theme of 
attack upon him, though the editor must know that no Govei'nor 
of a free State could have done otherwise than as Governor Sew- 
ard did. In short, every public question which arises, or haa 
ai'isen for years, is presented in the Sun in just such a manner as 



250 HORACE GREELEY 

will make the most capital for locofocoism. Is this such treatment 
as the AVhigs have a right to expect ? 

The morning Herald is a little less hitter in its hostility, hut 
hardly less thorough. Like the Sun, it opposes the land distribu- 
tion, a national bank, the protective policy, internal improvement, 
and the State administration, and gives a left-handed support to 
the sub-treasury. Its fulsome personal adulation of Gen. Harri- 
son, Mr. Webster, and a few other Whigs, is only calculated to give 
double pungency to its attacks on all our principles and measures. 
It would be impossible for a journal so notoriously unprincipled 
and reckless, to do us more harm than the Herald does ; unless, 
possibly, by coming out earnestly in our favor. The Albany Ar- 
gus, Globe, etc., find half their aliment in quotations, " From the 
IsFew York Herald, Whig." So of the Journal of Commerce. The 
Journal is a good newspaper, conducted with much shrewdness 
and industry, and entitled to credit for its moral character and 
bearing. But its editor's political sympathies are all with locofo- 
coism, and he views every public question through Van Buren 
spectacles. He, too, is hostile to a national bank, to protection, to 
distribution, to the prosecution of internal improvement, to the 
State administration, and to almost everything Whig. His paper 
constantly exerts a deadly influence, against not only the force 
which it fairly possesses, but that which is given to it by its posi- 
tion as an independent organ of the commercial interest, which is 
still farther increased by frequent quotations in the organs of loco- 
focoism.— From the Journal of Commerce, Whig paper. 

Now, we have the most undoubting confidence that the Wlu'g 
cause, will commend itself to the understanding and judgment of 
the people of our city, as well as of the country generally, if it has 
only an open field, and fair play. It is the hand of Joab that has 
smitten it here. While locofocoism has three such journals in its 
service, one of which has, of itself, more readers than all the Whig 
dailies in New York ; how can we hope for the permanent ascen- 
dency of AVhig principals in the commercial emporium ? Friends, 

think of it ! 
Impelled by these considerations, and encouraged by many 

ardent and active Whigs, we have resolved to undertake the pub- 
lication of a cheap daily, devoted to literature, intelligence, and 
the open and fearless advocacy of AVhig principles and measures. 
If the advocates of those principles and measures, shall see fit to 
support cordially and actively our enterprise, not only by taking 
our paper, but by giving it one-half so much advertising patron- 
age as they now bestow on the dead list, enemies of their cause, 
we shall be able to go on, successfully and efficiently ; if not, we 



AS AN EDITOR. 251 

shall persevere as long as we shall be able to do so — "Whigs ! shall 
the Tribune he sustained ? 

On the 18th of September 1841, five months after the first 
issue of the daily, the weekly Tribune was issued in lieu of 
the New- Yorker. The first number contained the following 
statement by Mr. Greeley : 

New York, September 18, 1841." 
The first number of the New York weekly Tribune is herewith 
presented to the public. In form, appearance and general character, 
this may be taken as an earnest of what the future issues of this 
journal will be, but most of the editoral articles prepared for this 
number, with a portion of the literary selections, have been 
crowded out by the press of important political matter, connected 
with the dissolution of the cabinet, and the foreign intelligence, 
brought by the Great Western, which has reached us siuce the ex- 
tent of our edition this week, compelled us to put the other side 
of the sheet, to press. Our future numbers will exhibit greater 
variety, and originality. 

We hope to render the weekly Tribune an acceptable, and inter- 
esting compend of the literature and intelligence of the day, and 
an earnest, efficient, though moderate upholder of correct political 
principles, and the interests of the nation. We shall labor to 
deserve the respect of the entire reading community, with the ap- 
probation and patronage, especially of the Whigs. 

We cannot take room to say more this week. To our old 
friends, the patrons of the New-Yorker, we appeal with confi- 
dence, for a continuation of their favor. We shall afford them as 
much literary matter as hitherto, with a far greater amount, and 
variety of intelligence. Unless decidedly averse to the political 
principles we cherish — so hostile as to fear their promulgation and 
advocacy — we trust that our new paper will be found, at least 
equally acceptable with the old. At any rate, we trust they will 
give us a fair trial. 

As an editor, Mr. Greeley has made for himself a reputation, 
and gained a position unrivaled for character and ability, in this 
country. In mental construction, he possesses the highest order 
of editorial ability. A brain of more than twenty-three and a 
half inches, accompanied by a good organic quality, and a 
mental temperament at once endowed him with a strength of mind 



252 HORACE GREELEY 

and a scope of intellectual perception of the first order of great 
men. With large firmness, he is endowed with strong personality, 
selfwilled and independent. His breadth of head, in the region 
of constructiveness and agreeableuess, enables him to see both sides 
of a question at the same time, hence his nature to deal fairly 
and wisely with an enemy as well as a friend. Such is the 
character of his mental organization that terseness, well defined 
expression, and varied discussion, always characterize his editori- 
als, and commend them to every reader. His paper and his pen, 
command the highest respect from enemies as well as friends. 
His natural gifts, coupled with a long life of ardent and unre- 
mitting industry, have enabled him to rise from an obscure boy, 
to an editor of the first order, on the Continent. No better 
mark of his commanding power, and greatness of soul can be 
found, than that shown in the dark days of the rebellion. When 
gloom seemed to hover over the cause of liberty and union, and 
the pious began to doubt the favor of God, and the President 
and his cabinet seemed to be tardy in the prosecution of the war 
for the union, Mr. Greeley, comprehending the perilous con- 
dition of the cause of the nation, and realizing the desponding 
state of the entire people, and knowing loyal hearts were every- 
where in anguish for the cause of the union, rose to the bight 
and dignity of his great mental manhood, and with the herculean 
aid of the Tribune, addressed through its columns, on the 21st 
day of August, 1862, a personal editorial, to the President of 
the United States, the most powerful in its character and influ- 
ence ever published to the world by any man. It commanded the 
admiration and sanction of the entire loyal people of the nation. 
When it was heralded forth with lightning speed over the land, 
millions of drooping hearts were made to rejoice, and Abraham 
Lincoln, sensible of its power — for it was in reality the prayer 
of twenty millions — responded to its appeal, and thereupon, 
more directly took his departure for the nations Sinai, which he 
in the fullness of time ascended, amid fire and smoke, and issued 
a new law from its terrible heights, and commanded again the 
children of Israel to go forward. 



AS AN EDITOR. 253 

Nor, was it any accident of partisan affiliation between Mr. 
Greeley and Mr. Lincoln, that induced the chief officer of the 
nation to respond to the chief editor of the Republic, but rather 
was it the power of the one, involuntarily representing the people, 
that called forth a response from the other, officially entrusted 
with the nation, and the happiness of its citizens. 

THE PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS. 

4. 

To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States : 

Dear Sir:— I do not intrude to tell yon — for you must know 
already — that a great portion of those who triumphed in your 
election, and of all who desire the unqualified suppression of the 
Rebellion now desolating our country, are sorely disappointed and 
deeply pained by the policy you seem to be pursuing with regard 
to the slaves of Rebels. I write only to set succinctly and unmis- 
takably before you what we require, what we think Ave have a 
right to expect, and of what we complain. 

I. We require of you, as the first servant of the Republic, 
charged especially and pre-eminently with this duty, that you ex- 
ecute the laws. Most emphatically do we demand that such 
laws as have been recently enacted, which therefore may fairly be 
presumed to embody the present will, and to be dictated by the 
present needs of the Republic, and which, after due consideration, 
have received your personal sanction, shall by you be carried into 
full effect, and that you publicly and decisively, instruct your 
subordinates that such laws exist, that they are binding on all 
functionaries and citizens, and that they are to be obeyed to the 
letter. 

II. We think you are strangely and disastrously remiss in the 
discharge of your official and imperative duty with regard to the 
emancipating provisions of the new Confiscation Act. Those pro- 
visions were designed to fight Slavery with Liberty. They pre- 
scribe that men loyal to tho Union, and willing to shed their blood 
in her behalf, shall no longer be held, with the nation's consent, in 
bondage to persistent, malignant traitors, who for twenty years 
have been plotting, and for sixteen months have been fighting to 
divide and destroy our country. Why these traitors should be 
treated with tenderness by you, to the prejudice of the dearest 
rights of loyal men, we cannot conceive. 

III. We think you are unduly influenced by the counsels, the rep- 
resentations, the menaces, of certain fossil politicians hailing from 



254 HORACE GREELEY 

the Border Slave States. Knowing well that the heartily, uncon- 
ditionally loyal portion of the white citizens of those States, do 
not expect nor desire that slavery shall be upheld to the predjudice 
of the Union, (for the truth of which we appeal not only to every 
Republican residing in those States, but to such eminent loyalists 
as H. Winter Davis, Parson Brownlow, the Union Central Com- 
mittee of Baltimore, and to the Nashville Union,) we ask you to 
consider that slavery is everywhere the inciting cause, and sustain- 
ing base of treason : the most slaveholding sections of Maryland 
and Delaware being this day, though under the Union flag, hi full 
sympathy with the Rebellion, while the free labor portions of 
Tennessee, and of Texas, though writhing under the bloody heel of 
treason, are unconquerably loyal to the Union. So emphatically 
is this the case, that a most intelligent Union banker of Baltimore 
recently avowed his confident belief that a majority of the present 
Legislature of Maryland, though elected as and still professing to be 
Unionists, are at heart desirous of the triumph of the Jeff. 
Davis conspiracy ; and when asked how they could be won back 
to loyalty, replied — " Only by the complete Abolition of Slavery." 
It seems to us the most obvious truth, that whatever strengthens 
or fortifies slavery in the Border States strengthens also treason, 
and drives home the wedge intended to divide the Union. Had 
you from the first refused to recognize in those States, as here, 
any other than unconditional loyalty — that which stands for the 
Union, whatever may become of slavery — those States would have 
been, and would be, far more helpful and less troublesome to the 
defenders of the Union, than they have been, or now ai-o. 

IV. We think timid counsels in such a crisis calculated to prove 
perilous, and probably disastrious. It is the duty of a govern- 
ment so wantonly, wickedly assailed by Rebellion as ours has been, 
to oppose force to force in a defiant, dauntless spirit. It cannot 
afford to temporize with traitors nor with semi-traitors. It must 
not bribe them to behave themselves, nor make them fair promises 
in the hope of disarming their causeless hostility. Representing 
a brave and high-spirited people, it can afford to foi'feit anything 
else better than its own self-respect, or their admiring confidence. 
For our Government even to seek, after war has been made on it, 
to dispel the affected apprehensions of armed traitors that their 
cherished privileges may be assailed by it, is to invite, insult and 
encourage hopes of its own downfall. The rush to arms of Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, is the true answer at once to the rebel raids of 
John Morgan, aud the traitorous sophistries of Berrah Magoffin. 



AS AN EDITOK. 255 

V. "We complain that the Union canse has suffered, and is now 
suffering immensely, from mistaken deference to Eebel Slavery. 
Had yon, Sir, in your Inaugural Address, unmistakably given notice 
that, in case the Rebellion already commenced were persisted in, and 
your efforts to preserve the Union and enforce the laws, should be 
resisted by armed force you ivould recognize no loyal person as 
rightfully held in slavery by a traitor, we believe the Rebellion 
would therein have received a staggering if not fatal blow. At 
that moment, according to the returns of the most recent elections, 
the Unionists were a large majority of the voters of the slave 
States. But they were composed in good part of the aged, the 
feeble, the wealthy, the timid — the young, the reckless, the aspir- 
ing, the adventurous, had already been largely lured by the gam- 
blers and negro-traders, the politicians by trade and the conspira- 
tors by instinct, into the toils of treason. Had you then pro- 
claimed that rebellion would strike the shackles from the slaves of 
every traitor, the wealthy and the cautious would have been sup- 
plied with a powerful inducement to remain loyal. As it was, 
every coward in the South soon became a traitor from fear ; for 
loyalty was perilous, while treason seemed comparatively safe. 
Hence, the boasted unanimity of* the South — a unanimity based on 
Rebel terrorism, and the fact that immunity and safety were found 
on that side, danger and probable death on ours. The Rebels from 
the first have been eager to confiscate, imprison, scourge and kill ; 
we have fought wolves with the devices of sheep. The result 
is just what might have been expected. Tens of thousands are 
fighting in the Rebel ranks to-day whose original bias and natural 
leanings would have led them into ours. 

VI. We complain that the Confiscation Act which you approved 
is habitually disregarded by your Generals, and that no word of re- 
buke for them from you- has yet reached the public ear. Fre- 
mont's Proclamation and Hunter's Order favoring Emancipation, 
were promptly annulled by you ; while Halleck's No. 3, forbidding 
fugitives from slavery to Rebels to come within his lines — an order 
as unmilitary as inhuman, and which received the hearty approba- 
tion of every traitor in America — with scores of like tendency, 
have never provoked even your remonstrance. We complain that 
the officers of your armies have habitually repelled, rather than in- 
vited the approach of slaves who would have gladly taken the risks 
of escaping from the Rebel masters to our camps, bringing intelli- 
gence often of inestimable value to the Union cause. We complain 
that those who have thus escaped to us, avowing a willingness to 
do for us whatever might be required, have been brutally and 



256 HORACE GREELEY 

madly repulsed, and often surrendered to be scourged, maimed and 
tortured by the ruffian traitors, who pretend to own them. We 
complain that a large proportion of our regular Army Officers, 
with many of the Volunteers, evince far more solicitude to uphold 
slavery than to put down the Rebellion. And finally, we com- 
plain that you, Mr. President, elected as a Republican, knowing 
well what an abomination Slavery is, and how emphatically it is 
the core and essence of this atrocious Rebellion, seem never to in- 
terfere with these atrocities, and never give a direction to your 
military subordinates, which does not appear to have been con- 
ceived in the interest of slavery rather than of freedom. 

VIE. Let me call your attention to the recent tragedy in New 
Orleans, whereof the facts are obtained entirely through pro- 
slavery channels. A considerable body of resolute, able-bodied 
men, held slavery by two Rebel sugar-planters in defiance of the 
Confiscation Act, which you have approved, left plantations thirty 
miles distant, and made their way to the great mart of the south- 
west, which they knew to be in the undisputed possession of the 
Union forces. They made their way safely and quietly through 
thirty miles of Rebel territory, expecting to find freedom under 
the protection of our flag. Whether they had or had not heard of 
the passage of the Confiscation Act, they reasoned logically that we 
could not kill them for deserting the service of their lifelong 
oppressors, who had through treason become our implacable 
enemies. They came to us for liberty and protection, for which 
they were willing to render their best service : they met with hos- 
tility, captivity, and murder. The barking of the base curs of 
slavery in this quarter deceives no one — not even themselves. 
They say, indeed, that the negroes had no right to appear in New 
Orleans armed (with their implements of daily labor in the cane- 
field) ; but no one doubts that they would gladly have laid these 
down if assured that they should be free. They were sel upon 
and maimed, captured and killed, because they sought the bene lit 
of that Act of Congress which they may not specifically have heard 
of, but which was none the less the law of land — which they had a 
clear right to the benefit of— Avhieh it was somebody's duty to pub- 
lish far and wide, in order that so many as possible should be im- 
pelled to desist from serving Rebels and the Rebellion, and come 
over to the side of the Union. They sought their liberty in strict 
accordance with the law of the land — they were butchered or re- 
enslaved, for so doing, by the help of Union soldiers enlisted to 
fight against slaveholding treason. It was somebody's fault rhat 
they were so murdered — if others shall hereafter sutler in like 



AS AN EDITOR. 257 

manner, in default of explicit and public direction to your Generals 
that they are to be recognized and obey the Confiscation Act, the 
world will lay the blame on you. "Whether you will choose to 
bear it through future history and at the bar of God, I will not 
judge. I can only hope. 

VIII. On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not 
one disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union 
cause who does not feel that all attempts to put down the Rebel- 
lion and at the same time uphold its inciting cause are preposter- 
ous and futile — that the Rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, 
would be renewed within a year if slavery were left in full vigor — 
that Army Officers who remain to this day devoted to slavery can 
at best be but half-way loyal to the Union — and that every hour of 
deference to slavery is an hour of added and deepened peril to the 
Union. I appeal to the testimony of your embassadors in Europe. 
It is freely at your seiwice, not at mine. Ask them to tell you can- 
didly whether the seeming subserviency of your policy to the 
slaveholding, slavery-upholding interest, is not the perplexity, the 
despair of statesmen of all parties, and be admonished by the 
general answer. 

IX. I close as I began with the statement that what an immense 
majority of the loyal millions of your countrymen require of you 
is a frank, declared, unqualified, ungrudging execution of the laws 
of the land, more especially of the Confiscation Act. That Act 
gives freedom to the slaves of Rebels coming within our lines, or 
whom those lines may at any time inclose — we ask you to render 
it due obedience by publicly requiring all your subordinates to 
recognize and obey it. The Rebels are everywhere using the late 
anti-negro riots in the North, as they have long used your officers' 
treatment of negroes in the South, to convince the slaves that they 
have nothing to hope from a Union success — that we mean in that 
case to sell them into a bitterer bondage to defray the cost of the 
war. Let them impress this as a truth on the great mass of their 
ignorant and credulous bondmen, and the Union will never be res- 
tored — never. We cannot conquer ten millions of people united 
in solid phalanx against us, powerfully aided by Northern sympa- 
thizers and European allies. We must have scouts, guides, spies, 
cooks, teamsters, diggers and choppers, from the blacks of the 
South, whether we allow them to fight for us or not, or we shall 
be baffled and repelled. As one of the millions who would gladly 
have avoided this struggle at any sacrifice but that of principal 
and honor, but who now feel that the triumph of the Union is in- 
dispensable not only to the existence of our country, but to the 

17 



258 HORACE GREELEY 

well-being of mankind, I entreat you to render a hearty and un- 
equivocal obedience to the law of the land. 

Yours, 
New York, August 19, 1862. Horace Greeley. 

This prayer was heard, and President Lincoln rose to the majes- 
tic height of his innate manhood, and the supremacy of his official 
position, and responded to the invocation of twenty millions, in the 
following words : 

president lincoln's letter. 

Executive Mansion, ) 
"Washington, August 22, 1862. \ 

Hon. Horace Greeley : 

Dear Sir : I have just read yours of the 19th, addressed to my- 
self through the N. Y. Tribune. If there be in it any statements 
or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not 
now and here controvert them. If there be in it any inferences 
which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here ar- 
gue against them. If there be perceptible in it an impatient and 
dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to au old friend, whose 
heart I have always supposed to be right. 

As to the policy I " seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not 
meant to leave any one in doubt. 

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under 
the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be re- 
stored, the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If 
there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at 
the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be 
those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same 
time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount 
object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save 
or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any 
slave, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, 
I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving oth- 
ers alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the 
colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union ; and 
what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to 
save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what 1 am 
doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe 
doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when 
shown to be errors ; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they 



AS AN EDITOR. 259 

shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose ac- 
cording to my view of official duty, and I intend no modification 
of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men, everywhere, could 

be free. Yours, 

A. Lincoln. 

In the Tribune of the 24th of the same month, the great 
editor replied again to the President in the following words : 

mr. Greeley's response. 

Dear Sir : Although I did not anticipate nor seek any reply to 
my former letter nnless through your official acts, I thank you for 
having accorded one, since it enables me to say explicitly that noth- 
ing was further from my thought than to impeach in any manner 
the sincerity or the intensity of your devotion to the saving of the 
Union. I never doubted, and have no friend who doubts, that 
you desire, before and above all else, to re-establish the now 
derided authority, and vindicate the territorial integrity of the 
Republic. I intended to raise only this question— Do you propose to 
do this by recognizing, obeying, and enforcing the laivs, or by 
ignoring, disregarding, and in effect defying them? 

I stand upon the law of the land. The humblest has a clear 
right to invoke its protection, and support against even the high- 
est. That law— in strict accordance with the law of nations, 
of nature, and of God — declares that every traitor now engaged iu 
the infernal work of destroying our country, has forfeited thereby 
all claim or color of right lawfully to hold human beings in slav- 
ery. I ask of you a clear and public recognition that this law is to 
be obeyed wherever the national authority is respected. I cite to 
you instances wherein men fleeing from bondage to traitors to 
the protection of our flag have been assaulted, wounded and mur- 
dered by soldiers of the Union — unpunished and unrebuked by 
your General commanding — to prove that it is your duty to 
take action in the premises — action that will cause the law to be 
proclaimed and obeyed wherever your authority or that of the 
Union is recognized as jjaramount. The Rebellion is strength- 
ened, the national cause is imperiled, by every hour's delay to 
strike treason this staggering blow. 

When Fremont proclaimed Freedom to the slaves of Rebels, you 
constrained him to modify his proclamation into rigid accordance 
with the terms of the existing law. It was your clear right to do 
so. I now ask of you conformity to the principle so sternly en- 



260 HORACE GREELEY 

forced upon him. I ask you to instruct your Generals and Commo- 
dores that no loyal person — certainly none willing to render service 
to the national canst: — is henceforth to be regarded as the slave of 
any traitor. While no rightful Government was ever before as- 
sailed by so wanton and wicked a rebellion as that of the slavehold- 
ers against our national life, I am sure none ever before hesitated 
at so simple and primary an act of self-defense as to relieve those 
who would serve and save it from chattel servitude to those who 
are wading through seas of blood to subvert and destroy it. Future 
generations will with difficulty realize that there could have been 
hesitation on this point. Sixty years of general and boundless sub- 
serviency to the slave power do not adequately explain it. 

Mr. President, I beseech you to open your eyes to the fact that 
the devotees of slavery everywhere— just as much in Maryland as 
in Mississippi, in Washington as in Richmond — are to-day your ene- 
mies, and the implacable foes of every eftbrt to re-establish the 
national authority by the discomfiture of its assailants. Their Pres- 
ident is not Abraham Lincoln, but Jefferson Davis. You may 
draft them to serve in the war; but they will only fight under 
the Rebel flag. There is not in New York to-day a man who really 
believes in slavery, loves it, and desires its perpetuation, who 
heartily desires the crushing out of the Rebellion. He would much 
rather save the Republic by buying up and pensioning off its assail- 
ants. His "Union as it was," is a Union of which you were not 
President, and no one who truly wished freedom to all ever could 
be. 

If these are truths, Mr. President, they are surely of the gravest 
importance. You cannot safely approach the great and good end 
you so intently meditate by shutting your eyes to them. Your 
deadly foe is not blinded by any mist in which your eyes may bo 
unveloped. He walks straight to his goal, knowing well his weak 
point, most unwillingly betraying his fear that you too may see 
and take advantage of it. God grant that his apprehension may 
prove prophetic. 

That you may not unseasonably perceive these vital truths as 
they will shine forth on the pages of History — that they may be read 
by our children irradiated by the glory of our national salvation, 
not rendered lurid by the blood-red glow of national conflagration 
and ruin — that you may promptly and practically realize that slav- 
ery is to be vanquished only by liberty — is the fervent and anxious 
prayer of Yours, truly, 

Horace Greeley. 

New York, Aug. 24, 1862. 



AS AN EDITOR. 261 

Thus stands Mr. Greeley to-day, as the greatest editor on the 
American continent, the greatest journalist in the world. 

On the 10th day of April, 1871, the Tribune, closed its thir- 
tieth year, and the issue of that day contained the following editorial 
statement, being a brief review of its doctrines and labors : 

TIIIKTY YEARS. 

The daily Tribune was first issued on the 10th of April, 1841 ; it 
has therefore completed its thirtieth, and to-day enters upon its 
thirty-first year. It was originally a small folio sheet, employing 1 
perhaps twenty persons in its production; it is now one of the larg- 
est journals issued in any part of the world, containing ten to fif- 
teen times as much as at first, and embodying in each issue the la- 
bor of four to five hundred persons as writers, printers, &c, &c. 
Its daily contents, apart from advertisements, would make a fair 
12mo volume, such as sells from the bookstores for $1.25 to $1.50; 
and, when we are compelled to issue a supplement, its editorials, 
correspondence, dispatches and reports, (which seldom leave room 
for any but a mere shred of selections,) equal in quantity an aver- 
age octavo. The total cost of its production for the first Aveek, w r as 
$525; it is now nearly $20,000 per week, with a constant, irresisti- 
ble tendency to increase. 

Other journals have been established by a large outlay of capital 
and many years of patient, faithful effort: the Tribune started on 
a very small capital, to which little has ever been added, except 
through the abundance and liberality of its patrons. They enabled 
it to pay its way almost from the outset ; and, though years have 
intervened, especially during our great Civil War, when, through 
a sudden and rapid advance in the cost of paper and other materi- 
als, our expenses somewhat exceeded our income, yet, taking the 
average of these thirty years, our efforts have been amply, gener- 
ously rewarded, and the means incessantly required to purchase 
expensive machinery, and make improvements on every hand, have 
been derived exclusively from the regular receipts of the establish- 
ment. Rendering an earnest and zealous, though by no means in- 
discriminate support for the former half of its existence to the 
"Whig, and through the latter half to the Republican party, the Tri- 
bune has asked no favor of either, and no odds of any man but that 
he should pay for whatever he chose to order, whether in the shape 
of subscriptions or advertisements. Holding that a journal can help 
no party tvhile it requires to be helped itself, we hope so to deserve 



262 HORACE GREELEY 

and retain the good will of the general public, that we -may be as 
independent in the future as we have been in the past. 

So long as slavery cursed our country, this journal was its de- 
cided and open though not reckless adversary ; now, that slavery 
is dead, we insist that the spirit of caste, of inequality, of contempt 
for the rights of the colored races, shall be buried in its grave. The 
only reason for their existence having vanished, it is logical and 
just that they should vanish also. Since the substance no longer 
exists, the shadow should promptly disappear. 

The protection, looking to the development, of our home indus- 
try, by duties on imports discriminating with intent to uphold and 
fortify weak and exposed departments thereof, has ever been, in 
our view, the most essential and beneficent feature of a true na- 
tional policy. Our country has always increased rapidly in pro- 
duction, in wealth, in population, and in general comfort, when 
protection was in the ascendant ; while it has been cursed with 
stagnation, paralysis, commercial revulsions, and wide-spread 
bankruptcies, under the sway of relative Free Trade. This journal 
stood for protection, under the lead of Henry Clay, Daniel Webs- 
ter, Walter Forward, George Evans, Thomas Corwin, and their 
compeers : it stands for protection to-day, as heartily as it did then 
and for identical reasons. It asks no Free-Trader to forego his 
economic views in order to be a Republican ; it insists that no pro- 
tectionist shall be bullied out of his convictions in deference to the 
harmony of the party. It asks no more than it concedes, and will 
be satisfied with no less. If the Republican party shall ever be 
broken up on the tariff question, it will take care that the responsi- 
bility is placed where it belongs. 

The editor of the Tribune was also its publisher and sole pro- 
prietor when it first commended itself to public attention. He long 
ago ceased to be publisher, and is now but one among twenty pro- 
prietors. As the work required has grown, it has been divided 
and in part assigned to others, but the chief direction and super- 
vision of its columns has been continued in his hands, and is likely 
to remain there so long as his strength shall endure. Half his life 
has been devoted to this journal ; the former half having been main- 
ly given to preparation for its conduct ; and now few remain who 
held kindred positions in this city, on the 10th of April, 1841. His 
only editorial assistant then, though several years his junior, was, 
after a brilliant independent career, suddenly called away in 1869, 
leaving behind him few equals in general ability ; and of those who 
aided in the issue of our No. 1, but two are known to be still liv- 
ing, and are among our co-proprietors, still rendering daily service 



AS AN EDITOR. 263 

in the establishment, and rejoicing in the possession of health and 
unfailing strength. Ten years more, and these three will probably 
have followed their associates already departed. But the Tribune, 
we fondly trust, will survive and nourish after we shall have sev- 
erally deceased, being sustained by the beneficence of its aims, the 
liberality of its spirit, and the generous appreciation of an intelli- 
gent and discerning people. 

Mr. Greeley's own statement, herewith appended, of his edi- 
torial career — as given in his " Recollections of a Busy Life " — 
will be of great interest to the reader : 

MR. GREELEY'S ACCOUNT OF HIS NEWSPAPERS — ESTABLISHMENT 
OF THE TRIBUNE. 

The Democratic party claimed an unbroken series of triumphs 
in eveiy presidential election which it did not throw away by its 
own dissentions ; and, being now united, regarded its success as 
inevitable. "You Whigs," said Dr. Duncan, of Ohio, one of its 
most effective canvassers, "achieve great victories every day in the 
year but one — that is the day of election." It was certain that 
a party which had enjoyed the ever-increasing patronage of the 
Federal Government for the preceding twelve years, which wielded 
that of most of the States also, and which was still backed by the 
popularity and active sympathy of General Jackson, was not to be 
expelled from power without the most resolute, persistent, sys- 
tematic exertions. Hence it was determined in the councils of our 
friends at Albany that a new campaign paper should be issued, to 
be entitled the Log Cabin; and I was chosen to conduct it. No 
contributions were made or sought in its behalf. I was to publish 
as well as edit it ; it was to be a folio of good size ; and it was 
determined that fifteen copies should be sent for the full term of 
six months (from May 1 to November 1) for $5. 

I had just secured a new partner (my fifth or sixth) of consider- 
able business capacity, when this campaign sheet was undertaken, 
and the immediate influx of subscriptions frightened and repelled 
him. He insisted that the price was ruinous ; that the paper could 
not be afforded for so little ; that we should inevitably be bank- 
rupted by its enormous circulation, and all my expostulations and 
entreaties were unavailing against his fixed resolve to get out of 
the concern at once. I therefore dissolved and settled with him, 
and was left alone to edit and publish both the New-Yorker and 
the Log Cabin, as I had in 1838 edited, but not published, the 



264 HORACE GREELEY 

New-Yorker and the Jeffersonian. Having neither steam pi^esscs 
nor facilities for mailing, I was obliged to hire everything done hut 
the headwork, which involved heavier outlays than I ought to have 
had to meet. I tried to make the Log Cabin as effective as I 
could, with engravings of General Harrison's battle scenes, music, 
&c, and to make it a model of its kind ; hut the times were so 
changed that it was more lively and less sedately argumentative 
than the Jeffersonian. 

Its circulation was entirely beyond precedent. I fixed the edition 
of No. 1 at 30,000 ; but, before the close of the week, I was obliged 
to print 10,000 more; and even this was too few. The circulation 
ran rapidly up to 80,000, and might have been increased, had 1 pos- 
sessed ample facilities for printing and mailing, to 100,000. With 
the machinery of distribution by the news companies, expresses, 
&c, now existing, I guess that it might have been swelled to a 
quarter of a million. And, though 1 made very little money by it, 
I gave every subscriber an extra number containing the results of 
the election. After that I continued the paper for a fnll year longer ; 
having a circulation of 10,000 copies, which about paid the cost, 
counting my work as editor nothing. 

The Log Cabin was but an incident, a feature of the canvass. 
Briefly, we Whigs took the lead, and kept it throughout. Our op- 
ponents struggled manfully, desperately ; but wind and tide 
were against them. They had campaign and other papers, and 
good speakers, and large meetings ; but we were far ahead of them 
in singing, and in electioneering emblems and mottoes which 
appealed to popular sympathies. The elections held next after the 
Harrisburg nominations were local, but they all went our way ; 
and the State elections which soon followed amply confirmed their 
indications. In September, Maine held her State election, and 
chose the Whig candidate for Governor (Edward Kent,) by a small 
majority, but on a very full vote. The Democrats did not concede 
his election till after the vote for President, in November. Penn- 
sylvania, in October, gave a small Democratic- majority ; but we 
insisted that it could be overcome when we came to vote for Har- 
rison, and it was. In October, Ohio, Indiana and Georgia, all gave 
decisive Harrison majorities, rendering the great result morally 
certain. Yet, when the choice of the Presidential electors was 
ascertained, even the most sanguine among us were astounded by 
the completeness of our triumph. We had given General Harrison 
the electoral votes of all but the seven States of New Hampshire, 
Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Illinois, Missouri and Arkan- 
sas— 60 in all — while our candidate had 234 ; making his the heaviest 



AS AN EDITOR. 265 

majority by which any President had ever been chosen. New 
York, where each party had done its best, had been carried for him 
by 13,290 majority ; but Governor Seward had been re-elected by 
only 5,315. With any other candidate for President, he could 
scarcely have escaped defeat. 

On the 10th day of April, 1841 — a day of most unseasonable chill, 
and sleet, and snow — our city held her gi*eat funeral parade and 
pageant in honor of our lost President, who had died six days be- 
fore. Gen. Robert Bogardus, the venerable Grand Marshal of the 
parade, died not long afterward, of exposure to its inclemencies. 
On that leaden, funereal morning, the most inhospitable of the 
year, I issued the first number of the New York Tribune. It was 
a small sheet, for it was to be retailed for a cent, and not much of 
a newspaper could be afforded for that price, even in those specie- 
paying times. I had been incited to this enterprise by several 
Whig friends, who deemed a cheap daily, addressed more especially 
to the laboring class, eminently needed in our city, where the only 
two cheap journals then and still existing — the Sun and the Herald 
—were in decided, though unavowed, and therefore more ef- 
fective, sympathy and affiliation with the Democratic party. Two 
or three had promised pecuniary aid if it should be needed ; only 
one (Mr. James Coggeshall, long since deceased,) ever made good 
that promise, by loaning me $1,000, which was duly "and gratefully 
repaid, principal and interest. I presume others would have 
helped me had I asked it ; bnt I never did. Mr. Dudley S. Greg- 
ory, who had voluntarily loaned me $1,000 to sustain the New- 
Yorker in the very darkest hour of my fortunes, in 1837, and whom 
I had but recently repaid, was among my most trusted friends in 
the outset of my new enterprise, also ; but I was able to prosecute 
it without taxing (I no longer needed to test,) his generosity. 

My leading idea was the establishment of a journal removed alike 
from servile partisanship on the one hand, and from gagged, minc- 
ing neutrality on the other. Party spirit is so fierce and intolerant 
in this country, that the editor of a non-partisan sheet is restrained 
from saying what he thinks and feels on the most vital, imminent 
topics ; while, on the other hand, a Democratic, Whig or Repub- 
lican journal, is generally expected to praise or blame, like or dis- 
like, eulogize or condemn, in precise accordance with the views 
and interest of its party. I believed there was a happy medium 
between these extremes — a position from which a journalist might 
openly and heartily advocate the principles and commend the 
measures of that party to which his convictions allied him, yet dis- 
sent frankly from its course on a particular question, and even de- 



266 HORACE GREELEY 

nounce its candidates, if they were shown to he deficient in capac- 
ity or (far worse,) in integrity. I felt that a journal thus loyal to 
its guiding convictions, yet ready to expose and condemn un- 
worthy conduct or incidental error, on the part of men attached to 
its party, must be far more effective, even party-wise, than though 
it might always ha counted on to applaud or reprobate, bless or 
curse, as the party's predjudices 01 immediate interest might seem 
to prescribe. Especially by the whigs — who were rather the loose- 
ly aggregated, mainly undisciplined opponents of a great party, 
than, in the stricter sense, a party themselves — did I feel that such 
a journal was consciously needed, and should be fairly sustained. 
1 had been a pretty constant and copious contributor (generally un- 
paid,) to nearly or quite every cheap Whig journal that had, from 
time to time, been started in our city; most of them to fail after a very 
brief, and not particularly bright, career. But one — the New York 
Whig, which was, throughout most of its existence, under the dig- 
nified and conscientious direction of Jacob B. Moore, formerly of 
the NeAV Hampshire Journal, had been continued through two or 
three years. My familiarity with its history and management, gave 
me confidence that the right sort of a cheap "Whig journal would 
be enabled to live. I had been ten years in New York, was thirty 
years old, in full health and vigor, and worth, I presume, about 
$2,000, half of it in printing materials. The Jeffersonian, and still 
more, the Log Cabin, had made me favorably known to many 
thousands of those who were most likely to take such a paper as I 
proposed to make the Tribune, while the New-Yorker had given 
me some literary standing, and the reputation of a useful and well- 
informed compiler of election returns. In short, I was in a better 
position to undertake the establishment of a daily newspaper, than 
the great mass of those who try it and fail, as most who make the 
venture do and must. I presume the new journals (in English,) 
since started in this city, number not less than one hundred, where- 
of barely two — the Times and the World — can be fairly said to be 
still living; and the World is a mausoleum, wherein the remains 
of the evening Star, the American, and the Courier and Enquirer, 
lie inumed ; these having long ago swallowed sundry of their pred- 
ecessors. Yet several of those which have meantime lived their 
little hour and passed away, were conducted by men of decided 
ability and ripe experience, and were backed by a pecuniary capi- 
tal at least twenty times greater than the fearfully inadequate sum 
whereon I started the Tribune. 

On the intellectual side, my venture was not so rash as it seemed. 
My own fifteen years' devotion to newspaper-making, in all its 



AS AN EDITOR. 267 

phases, was worth far more than will be generally supposed ; and 
I had already secured a first assistant in Mr. Henry J. Raymond, 
who — having for two years, while in college at Burlington, Ver- 
mont, been a valued contributor to the literary side of the New. 
Yorker — had hied to the city directly upon graduating, late in 1840, 
and gladly accepted my offer to hire him at eight dollars per week 
until he could do better. I had not much for him to do till the 
Tribune was started ; then I had enough. And I never found an- 
other person, barely of age and just from his studies, who evinced 
so much and so versatile ability in journalism, as he did. Abler 
and stronger men I may have met ; a cleverer, readier, more gen- 
erally efficient journalist, I never saw. He remained with me eight 
years, if my memory serves, and is the only assistant with whom I 
ever felt required to remonstrate for doing more work than any 
human brain and frame could be expected long to endure. His sal- 
ary was of course gradually increased from to time; but his ser- 
vices were more valuable, in proportion to their cost, than those of 
any one else who ever worked on the Tribune. 

Mr. Geo. M. Snow, a friend of my one ago, who had had con- 
siderable mercantile experience, took charge of the Financial and 
"Wall-st. department, (then far less important than it now is,) and 
retained it for more than twenty-two years ; becoming ultimately 
a heavy stockholder in and a trustee of the concern; resigning his 
trust only when (in 1863) he departed for Europe in ill health ; re- 
turning but to die two years later. A large majority of those who 
aided in preparing or in issuing the first number had preceded or 
have followed Mr. Snow to the Silent Land ; but two remain and 
are now foreman and engineer respectively in the printing de- 
partment — both stockholders and trustees. Others, doubtless, sur- 
vive who were with us then, but have long since drifted away to 
the West, to the Pacific Slope, or into 'some other employment, and 
the places that once knew them know them no more. Twenty-six 
years witness many changes, especially in a city like ours, a posi- 
tion like mine ; and I believe that the only man who was editor 
of a New York daily before me, and who still remains such, is Mr. 
James Gorden Bennett of the Herald. 

About five hundred names of subscribers had already been ob- 
tained for the Tribune — mainly by warm personal and political 
friends, Noah Cook and James Coggeshall — before its first issue, 
whereof I printed 5,000, and nearly succeeded in giving away all 
of them that would not- sell. I had type, but no presses ; and so 
had to hire my press-work done by the "token ;" my folding and 



268 HORACE GREELEY 

had few papers to mail and not very many to fold. The lack of 
the present machinery of railroads and expresses was a grave ob- 
stacle to the circulation of my paper outside of the city's suburbs ; 
but I think its paid-for issues, were 2,000 at the close of the first 
week, and that they increased pretty steadily, at the rate of 500 
per week, till they reached 10,000. My current expenses for the 
first week were about $525 ; my receipts $92 ; and though the out- 
goes steadily, inevitably increased, the income increased in a still 
larger ratio, till it nearly balanced the former. But I was not 
made for a publisher ; indeed, no man was ever qualified at once 
to edit and to publish a daily paper, such as it must be to live in 
these times ; and it was not until Mr. Thomas McElrath — whom I 
had barely known as a member of the publishing firm over whose 
store I first set type in this city, but who was now a lawyer in 
good standing and practice — made me a voluntary and wholly un- 
expected proffer of partnership in my still struggling but hopeful 
enterprise, that it might be considered fairly on its feet. He 
offered to invest $2,000 as an equivalent to whatever I had in the 
business, and to devote his time and energies to its management, 
on the basis of perfect equality in ownership "and in sharing the 
proceeds. This I very gladly accepted ; and from that hour my 
load was palpably lightened. During the 10 years or over that the 
Tribune was issued by Greeley & McElrath, my partner never 
once even indicated that my anti-slavery, anti-hanging, socialist, 
and other frequent aberrations from the straight and narrow path 
of Whig partisanship, were injurious to our common interest, 
though he must often have sorely felt that they were so ; and never, 
except when I (rarely) drew from the common treasury more 
money than could well be spared, in order to help some needy 
friend whom he judged beyond help, did he even look grieved at 
anything I did. On the other hand, his business management of 
the concern, though never brilliant nor specially energetic, was so 
safe and judicious that itgave me no trouble, and scarcely required 
of me a thought during that long era of all but unclouded prosper- 
ity. The transition from my four preceding years of incessant pe- 
cuniary anxiety, if not absolute embarrassment, was like escaping 
from the dungeon and the rack to freedom and sympathy. Hence- 
forth, such rare pecuniary troubles as I encountered were the just 
penalties of my own folly in endorsing notes for persons who, in 
the nature of things, could not rationally be expected to pay them. 
But these penalties are not to be evaded by those, who, soon after 
entering responsible life, "go into business," as the phrase is, when 
it is inevitable that they must thereby be involved in debt. He 



AS AN EDITOR. 269 

who starts on the basis of dependence on his own proper resources, 
resolved to extend his business no further and no faster than his 
means will justify, may fairly refuse to lend what he needs in his 
own operations, or to endorse for others when he asks no one to 
endorse for him. But you cannot ask favors, and then churlishly 
refuse to grant any— borrow and then frown upon whoever asks 
you to lend — seek endorsements, but decline to give any ; and so 
the idle, the prodigal, the dissolute, with the thousands fore- 
doomed by their own defects of capacity, of industry, or of man- 
agement, to chronic bankruptcy, live upon the earnings of the 
capable, thrifty and provident. Better wait five years to go into 
business upon adequate means which are properly your own, than 
to rush in prematurely, trusting to loans, endorsements, and the 
forbearance of creditors, to help you through. I have squandered 
much hard-earned money in trying to help others who were al- 
ready past help, when I not only might but should have saved 
most of it if I had never, needing help, sought and received it. As 
it is, I trust that my general obligation has been fully discharged. 

The Tribune, as it first appeared, was but the germ of what I 
sought to make it. No journal sold for a cent could ever be much 
more than a dry summary of the most important or the most interest- 
ing occurrences of the day; and such is not a newspaper, in the higher 
sense of the term. "We need to know not only what is done, but 
what is purposed and said, by those who sway the destinies of 
states and realms. And to this end, the prompt perusal of the 
manifestoes of monarchs, presidents, ministers, legislators, etc., is in- 
dispensable. No man is even tolerably informed in our day who does 
not regularly "keep the run" of events and opinions, through 
the daily perusal of at least one good journal; and the ready cavil that 
"no one can read" all that a great modern journal contains, only 
proves the ignorance or thoughtlessness of the caviler. No one 
person is expected to take such an interest in the rise and fall of 
stocks, the markets for cotton, cattle, grain and goods, the proceed- 
ings of Congress, Legislatures and Courts, the politics of Europe, 
and the ever-shifting phases of Spanish-American anarchy, etc., 
as would incite him to a daily perusal of the entire contents of a 
metropolitan city journal of the first rank. The idea is rather to 
embody in a single sheet, the information daily required by all 
those who aim to keep "posted" on all important occurrences; so 
that the lawyer, the merchant, the banker, the foi'warder, the econ- 
omist, the author, the politician, etc., may find here whatever he 
needs to see, and be spared the trouble of looking elsewhere. A 
copy of a great morning journal, now contains more matter than 



270 HORACE GREELEY 

an average 12mo volume, and its production costs far more, while 
it is sold for a fortieth or fiftieth part of the volume's price. There 
is no other miracle of cheapness in comparison with its cost, which 
at all approaches it. The electric telegraph has precluded the mul- 
tiplication of journals in the great cities, by enormously increasing 
the cost of publishing each of them. The Tribune, for example, 
now pays more than $100,000 per annum, for intellectual labor (re- 
porting included,) in and about its office, and $100,000 more for cor- 
l'espondence and telegraphing— in other words, for collecting and 
transmitting news. And, while its income has been largely in- 
creased from year to year, its expenses have inevitably been swelled 
even more rapidly ; so that, at the close of 1866, in which its re- 
ceipts had been over $900,000, its expenses had been very nearly 
equal in amount, leaving no profit beyond a fair rent for the prem- 
ises it owned and occupied. And yet its stockholders were satisfied 
that they had done a good business — that the increase in the pat- 
ronage and value of the establishment amounted to a fair interest 
on their investment, and might well be accepted in lieu of a divi- 
dend. In the good time coming, with cheaper paper and less exor- 
bitant charges for " cable dispatches " from the Old World, they 
will doubtless reap where they have now faithfully sown. Yet 
they realize and accept the fact that a journal radically hostile to 
the gainful arts whereby the cunning and powerful few live sump- 
tuously without useful labor, and often amass wealth, by pandering 
to lawless sensuality and popular vice, can never hope to enrich its 
publishers so rapidly and so vastly as though it had a soft side for 
the liquor traffic,, and for all kindred allurements to carnal appetite 
and sensual indulgence. 

Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; riches take wings; 
the only earthly certainty is oblivion — no man can foresee what a day 
may bring forth ; and those who cheer to-day will often curse to- 
morrow. And yet I cherish the hope that the journal I projected 
and established will live and flourish long after I shall have mould- 
ered into forgotten dust, being guided by a larger wisdom, a more 
unerring sagacity to discern the right, though not by a more unfal- 
tering readiness to embrace and defend it at whatever personal 
cost ; and that the stone which covers my ashes may bear to future 
eyes the still intelligible inscription, " Founder of the New York 
Tribune." 

Turning back more than thirty years ago, when Mr. Greeley 
was only about twenty-seven years of age, he discussed in the 
Jeffersonian, the impotence of the public press to enlighten 



AS AN EDITOR. 271 

mankind, and advance civilization. His remarks, though written 
far back in his early days, show an originality and an ability that 
present the subject of the public press with great clearness and 
force, and attaches to it an importance not usually comprehended. 
It is a work of no ordinary concern to properly state the Tribune 
fully and truly to the public. If the object was simply to state 
the record of a newspaper — its rise and continuance — the task 
would be light ; but to truly and fully state the Tribune, it is 
necessary to state the greater portion of the life-work of Horace 
Greeley. The Tribune is Greeley, and Greeley is the Tri- 
bune. If the Tribune is greater than any other newspaper, it 
is because Greeley is a greater editor than any other man. If 
Greeley is a Reformer, the Tribune is a Reformer. If the Tri- 
bune has been a constant, independent and progressive journal, 
Greeley has been a constant, independent and progressive man. 
No paper is like the Tribune, no man is like Horace Greeley. 
A single instance of recent date will show the enterprise of 
the Tribune managers to be greater than belongs to any 
other paper in the world. During the late war between France 
and Germany, the current expenses of that paper were in- 
creased $50,000 in three months. First-class men were sent 
as correspondents to report the movements of those great armies, 
during that great struggle, and often decisive battles were 
reported by two different Tribune men, one on the German 
side, the other on the side of the French, and the whole cor- 
respondence telegraphed from London to the Tribune in advance 
of any other paper in the world. This is, without question, the 
most remarkable instance of newspaper enterprise that has ever 
taken place, and must be regarded with great credit as well to 
American enterprise. 

The following comprises a few testimonials from the press o£ 
the country in proof of that remarkable instance of American 
newspaper enterprise : 



272 HORACE GREELEY 

WHERE TO LOOK FOR WAR NEWS — COMPLIMENTS FROM THE 

PRESS. 

The truth about the special correspondence of the Tribune is 
simply this : The ubiquitous correspondent who is always present 
at every action, and is everlastingly embracing the King of Prussia 
and Bismarck, sends a few notes to Paris or London, and from 
these scanty notes the long "yarns" which "gull" the public here 
are written up — there being about one grain of wheat to the 
bushel of chafF. It is only necessary to add that if the Tribune had 
been content with puffing its spurious wares, no one would have 
interfered. But it is a part of its principle to be constantly going 
out of its way to attack other journals, and when they protest it 
gets its hirelings in the country press to raise a great outcry in its 
defense. — From the New York Times. 

The extent to which the Atlantic telegraph is used by the 
American press in reporting the progress of the war in France, is a 
noteworthy illustration of the enterprise of our journals, and of 
their superiority to the European as purveyors of news. While 
even the London Times is satisfied with the most meager outline 
by telegraph, and depends .upon correspondence by mail for the 
bulk of its news, American journals lay before their readers 
every morning voluminous and comprehensive dispatches from the 
seat of war, giving full and remarkable accurate accounts of the 
military situation; so that, although it passes through London on 
its way here, the most important news of the war appears first in 
the papers of New York. The New York Tribune, for instance, 
gave, in advance of European journals, the first detailed account of 
the great battle of Gravelotte. That battle was fought on Thurs- 
day, August 18, lasting far into night, and on the Wednesday 
morning following, the Tribune printed a vivid and minute de- 
scription of the day's events, at a time when no details were 
known in London, Paris or Berlin. The dispatch was, it is said, 
the longest ever sent over the Atlantic telegraph, and the cost of 
transmission was nearly $5,000. These facts are worthy of record, 
as illustrating the enterprise of American journalism. — From Har- 
per's Weekly. 

"We continue to copy, as we find room for them, the splendid 
war pictures furnished by the indefatigable correspondents of the 
Tribune. The feats performed by that journal in reporting the 
events of the great war, are unprecedented in the history of 
journalism. Kival and beaten journals deride and seek to belittle 
these graphic reports ; but while carping they are forced to copy. 



AS AN EDITOR. 273 

The Tribune has shewn marvelous tact and husiness courage in 
collecting and transmitting by telegraph such masses of matter, 
and it must be placed at the very head of American newspapers. — 
From the New-Haven Journal and Courier. 

The victorious Prussians have not achieved a more astounding 
triumph over Napoleon and his Generals than the Tribune has won 
over its enterprising cotemporaries in the metropolis. The fact 
is disputed, of course ; newspapers will not acknowledge it if they 
ever know when they are beaten ; but public opinion, with hardly a 
dissenting voice, has proclaimed the triumph of the Tribune. 
Those papers which carp at and attempt to belittle the distin- 
guished achievements of the Tribune, only succeed in betraying a 
degree of mortification, which is tantamount to a confession of de- 
feat. * * * * It has been sowing with unexampled liberality ; 
it expects to reap an abundant harvest in due season. We have no 
doubt in the world that it must have spent, already, for extra dis- 
patches from the seat of war, at least $100,000 more than it has real- 
ized in the profits on extra sales during the same space of time. It 
has won a very great distinction ; the public recognizes it as the 
Leading Journal of America ; and the position may be worth all it 
has cost ; but it will take a long time to get the money back again, 
under the most favorable circumstances. "We have only enlarged 
upon the facts in order to do justice to a cotemporary that has 
illustrated the most wonderful military achievements in history by 
the most remarkable exhibition of newspaper enterprise, that tho 
world has ever seen. — From the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. 

The feats of intelligence and ability performed by the New York 
Tribune since the European war opened, are among the most won- 
derful achievements of our day. This paper has distanced all its 
cotemporaries in the freshness, extent, and accuracy of its war 
news — in fact, for the first two or three weeks, it gave to the coun- 
try the only important infonnation from the seat of war. Its cor- 
respondents telegraphed a full and honest account of the great bat- 
tle of Gravelotte before either London, Berlin, or Paris had read a 
description of it. The total expense of this journalistic triumph 
was over $3,000. "We don't wonder at the astonishment which 
such daring expenditure excites in Europe. The rivals of the Tri- 
bune in New York, instead of generously according praise for such 
signal illustrations of American sagacity and energy, manifest a 
regular spirit of jealousy, and attempt to deny the palpable facts. 
In the mean time, the Tribune goes on with its great work, and 
gains in reputation and subscribers daily. Unmistakably the Tri- 
bune is at the head of the journals of the world. — From the Adams 
{Mass.) Transcript. 
18 



274 HORACE GREELEY 

THE LEADERSHIP OF THE PRESS. 

The New York Tribune has fairly taken the lead of the Ameri- 
can press. Probahly no journal in the world has equaled it in the 
enterprise and spirit it has shown, in obtaining- news of the present 
European war. Its correspondence by telegraph often costs it 
$1,000 a day, it is said. No one can look over its columns without 
being surprised at the number and fullness of its war dispatches. 
Some of the other papers of New York show a very mean and un- 
generous spirit, in attempting to rob the Tribune of the credit its 
superior enterprise has so fairly earned. At the breaking out of 
the war, the Tribune organized, under the lead of its London cor- 
respondent, a large corps of writers, who pushed forward imme- 
diately to the front, and who furnish the most complete and relia- 
ble accounts of the war which we receive. Because some of the 
other journals, when under the rules of the associated press they 
receive these dispatches, pay a portion of the cost of telegraphing, 
that does not destroy the credit which belongs to the Tribune for 
organizing, at a great cost, the means of obtaining them. — From 
the Galena (111.) Gazette. 

The New Yoi*k Tribune has distanced all competitors in furnish- 
ing fresh, reliable, and the most complete war news to its readers 
daily. It has paid for transmitting its news from London to New 
York by telegraph, from $1,000 to over $2,000 in gold daily. 
It is an exhibition of pluck and enterprise we always ad- 
mire and like to applaud. When the Tribune says it will furnish 
its readers with news hereafter, it will be distinctly understood 
that it " means business." — From Moore's Rural New-Yorker 

THE WONDERS OF THE WAR. 

The present war in Europe has been prolific in wonders, the 
greatest being the marvelous oi'ganization, prowess, and success of 
Prussia. The second, the scarcely less astonishing weakness of 
Imperial France ; the third, the easy way in which the Napoleonic 
dynasty is overthrown, and a Republic inaugurated in its stead. 
Of another kind of marvels, but scarcely less wonderful, is the de- 
velopment of journalistic enterprise to which the war has given 
birth, and in which the New York Tribune towers immeasurably 
above all the journals of the world. That paper has special corres- 
pondents at London, Paris, Berlin, and, we believe, Brussels or 
Luxembourg ; besides special importers accompanying each army, 
one or other or both of whom succeed, notwithstanding extraordi- 



AS AN EDITOR. 275 

nary difficulties, in being present at the gi*eat battles. These cor- 
respondents send special messengers to London with their letters, 
which are telegraphed in full to New York, at an enormous ex- 
pense, by Atlantic cable. One of these messages cost about 
$2,600 in gold, and two others were nearly or quite as long. There 
is, besides, a daily supply of shorter telegraphic correspondence, 
which, in the aggregate, must cost nearly as much. Indeed, we 
have little doubt that the expenses of the Tribune for war corres- 
pondence alone, including salaries, traveling expenses, special ex- 
press messengers and table telegrams, must have amounted to some- 
thing like $4,000 or $5,000 a day for a fortnight or more. Nor has 
this expenditure been fruitless. Time and space have been almost 
annihilated, and minute descriptions of great battles fought around 
Metz or Sedan have been published in New York on the third 
morning after they occurred. This whole continent has been in- 
debted to the Tribune for the war news, most of the New-York 
papers using it as if it were their own correspondence. "We have 
regularly printed these great dispatches next day after they ap- 
peared in the Tribune, giving credit, of course, to the source from 
which we obtained them. 

From the commencement of the Franco-Prussian war, we have, 
we confess, been amazed at the wondei'ful enterprise and forecast 
of the New York Tribune. "We have delayed reference to the Tri- 
bune's great and triumphant undertaking thus far, to see whether 
it was possible to maintain such a strain. "We can no longer hesi- 
tate to declare that its success is as complete as its design was novel 
and splendid. All honor to the great newspaper of the world! — 
From the Harrisburg Daily Telegraph. 

The Tribune has*displayed a degree of enlightened and liberal 
enterprise throughout the present war, which completely eclipses 
all that has been attempted by the leading English and European 
press. "With correspondents at the principal German, French and 
English cities, and others accompanying the German armies, and 
hovering on the lines of the French, this great paper has been able 
to publish daily more full and satisfactory accounts of the war, than 
any of the European papers, with all their advantages of position 
and presumed familiarity with the situation. The Herald, World 
and Times have also shown much enterprise in the same field ; but 
it is only just to admit that the Tribune has led all cotemporaries 
in respect to fullness, variety, and general accuracy of information. 
Some of its special reports have cost from $1,200 to $2,000 for trans- 
mission over the cable, and their prompt arrival and unusual 
length, have made their receipt and publication a novelty in jour- 
nalism. — From the San Francisco Bulletin. 



276 HORACE GREELEY 

The records of newspaper enterprise cannot offer anything that 
will compare with the recent exploits of the Tribune, in securing 
news from the seat of hostilities in Europe. The cost of transmit- 
ting by cable the report of the last battle, in which Bazaine, after 
a most obstinate and heroic resistance, was compelled to fall back 
upon Metz, is said, all things considered, to amount to not less than 
$4,000. The description of the details of the terrible encounter, is 
one of the most graphic word paintings of battle scenes ever exe- 
cuted, and is not exceeded even by the brilliant sketches of the 
London Times' correspondent, known as Bull Run Russell. What- 
ever may be said of the opinions on many questions, which have at 
times appeared in the columns of the Tribune, by common con- 
sent, the palm of superior pluck and enterprise has been fairly won 
over all competitors, and no doubt the proprietors wi41 find their 
interest and a full recompense for the outlay, in the increased pres- 
tige which their paper has received. Like all who are really de- 
serving of commendation, the Tribune, throughout this entire 
period of large expenditure, has said very little about it, and by 
its modesty, has hightened the virtue which it vails. We deem it 
just to render honor where honor is due, and wish prosperity, not 
only to the Tribune in the full measure of its deserving, but hope, 
also, that some of its cotemporaries may be provoked by its exam- 
ple, to do more and say less. — From the Easton Express. 

"We published yesterday such extracts as our space allowed from 
the enormous cable dispatch to the Tribune, which gave a descrip- 
tion of the battle of Gravelotte, fought just a week ago. That an 
American newspaper should be the first to give a full and graphic 
account of a battle fought in the heart of France, written by an 
eye-witness, sent by rail to the nearest available telegraph station, 
and transmitted by cable at the formidable expense of two thousand 
two hundred and eighty dollars in gold — is an achievement which 
is not only a lasting honor to American journalism, but which will 
be regarded by intelligent men the world over, as one of the most 
marvellous illustrations of the immense progress of the age, in the 
intercommunication of ideas. The other great dailies of this city, 
whose enterprise has been so often and so signally manifested, should 
feel a common pride in such a journalistic achievement as this, 
which reflects honor on American journalism, while it affords the 
Tribune just cause for self-congratulation. — From the Y. Y. Eve- 
ning Mail. 

We are indebted to the Tribune for a series of extremely intei'- 
esting reports, wherein the incidents of the three battles, or rather 
of the great battle in three acts, fought between Metz and Verdun 



AS AN EDITOR. 277 

on the memorable days of the 14th and 16th of this month, are de- 
scribed with great care. After describing with great clearness the 
incidents of the great battle of the 18th, the Tribune correspondent 
explains the result. It is a very complete and moving report by an 
eye-witness. The Tribune, it is known, is far from being favorable 
to France. Its correspondent was even during the action in 
the camp, and at the side of King AVilliam and M. de Bismarck. 
His narrative shows an involuntary but evident partiality for Prus- 
sia. It will be seen, nevertheless, that he cannot avoid doing hom- 
age to the unparalleled valor of our soldiers, and to the military 
genius of their Commander, Marshal Bazaine. — From the Courrier 
des Flats- Unis. 

The account of the battle of Gi'avelotte, which we publish to-day, 
is from the New York Tribune, and telegraphed to that journal, 
from London direct. The cost of this undertaking must have been 
enormous. The minute accounts of battles from the seat of war, 
as we take them from German uewspapei's, are elaborate, and per- 
haps a little more so than the account of our English cotempora- 
ries; but the grandeur of the Tribune'' s undertaking, consists in 
transmitting its correspondence direct from London to New York 
by telegraph. Justice to a political opponent, forces us into this 
recognition of journalistic enterprise. The Tribune has distanced 
all other newspapers. — From Das New-Yorker Journal. 

The Tribune brings, without doubt, more detailed dispatches 
from the seat of war, than any other newspaper in the United 
States ; indeed, we do not think we overstep the mark in saying 
that its telegraphic news informs its large circle of readers of im- 
portant events, sooner than any newspaper in London, Paris, or 
Berlin. "We doubt, for instance, whether in any of those cities such 
a detailed account of the battle of Gravelotte has appeared, as that 
in yesterday's Tribune. It cost the Tribune $2,280 to telegraph this 
account from London to New York alone. Again, to-day's Trib- 
une contains several special dispatches, which give a clearer account 
of the state of affairs, than the dispatches of both press associations. 
But not only by its explicit dispatches, but also by editorials on the 
great events ruling in Europe, has the Tribune aided in spreading 
among Americans a clear understanding of the causes and goal of 
the war. JThat its sympathies are with the right cause, that is, 
Germany, we have already several times noted. It is in a great 
measure owing to the Tribune, that the majority of Americans, and 
principally the educated class, sympathize with Germany, and Ger- 
mans should unfold in their circles, the flag of the Tribune, instead 
of that of the Herald. We rejoice to learn that the Tribune already 



278 nORACE GREELEY 

reaps fruits of its colossal outlays, having increased for severa. 
weeks enormously in circulation, and we wish Germans to work 
hard for a wider circulation. — From Die New-Yorker Abend-Zeit- 
ung. 

The New York Tribune continues to outdo all its cotempora- 
ries, either in Europe or America, in the promptness and fullness 
with which it furnishes the war news. It not only published full 
accounts of the lighting' around Metz last week, Sunday and Tues- 
day, hut has had telegraphed a several column account of the great 
battle of Gravclotte, last week Thursday, in which Marshal Bazaine 
was utterly defeated by Prince Frederic Charles and Gen Stein- 
metz, and forced back to the fortifications of Metz. This was (lie 
greatest battle of the war, so far, and it may prove to be the decis- 
ive battle of the Avar. The Tribune, doubtless with truth, claims 
to be the first paper, either in Europe or the United States, to give 
a detailed account of this battle by an eye-witness, and it is an ex- 
ploit of which it may well be proud. — From the Springfield He- 
publican. 

The Tribune of "Wednesday gratified the reading public by a very 
long, graphic, and complete account by telegraph, of the battle of 
Gravclotte, the first detailed report of that contest yet furnished 
by any paper, cither in Europe or America. This is another bril- 
liant example of the unsurpassed enterprise, with which every one 
is now familiar, displayed by the Tribune during the present strug- 
gle. — From the New-Haven Palladium. 

The publication by the N. Y. Tribune this morning, of four col- 
umns of a graphic account of a battle fought in France last Thurs- 
day, is one of the notable incidents of modern journalism. It in- 
volved, first, the sending of a man with brains, eyes, education, and 
courage to the field. He must also have enough of social position 
and polite address to secure kindly treatment and fair opportunity 
to observe what is going on. His day's work done, he must tele- 
graph to his principal at London, and he again, to the home office 
in New York. The exploit cost some thousands of dollars, but was 
so well executed that Americans are better informed this morning 
as to the real events and results of the battle of Gravclotte than are 
the inhabitants of Berlin, Paris or London. 

The power of a newspaper does not rest in self-assertion, certain- 
ly not in the filthy use of personalities now abandoned by all re- 
spectable sheets, and only maintained by struggling bankrupt estab- 
lishments, seeking to attract a notice they do not deserve, or stu- 
pidly by fellows, who have no business to claim a place in a learn- 
ed profession. The tendency of journalism is toward the entire ab- 



AS AN EDITOR. 279 

sorption of the individual in the paper. Who knows, and how few 
care, who wrote the magnificent battle-picture in the Tribune o f 
this morning ? The gentleman who controls the policy and news 
business of the Tribune, very rarely sees his name in print. The 
finished scholar and accomplished writer who is the author of most 
of the perversely cogent " leaders" in the World, is absolutely un- 
known to fame, except as he enjoys a professional reputation, a re- 
pute among journalists, who are good judges of their own class, 
which does him high honor, and with which we pi-esume him to be 
content. Only the snobs and underlings enjoy a publicity which 
is necessarily a mere notoriety. No good journal can allow its fame 
to rest upon the personal fortunes of any man, and as a compensa- 
tion to the journalist he is, by all honorable men, spared those de- 
rogatory personal allusions which lie would not himself apply to 
others, and which cannot by any possibility weaken — though they 
may strengthen — the intrinsic force of the argument he presents. 
This is a sound theory of his position. Mr. Raymond's idea — and 
America has known no abler journalist — was, that a newspaper 
represents not so much its editor, as the aggregate mind of its read- 
ers. If they are pure-minded and intelligent, so must be his con- 
duct of the paper. If they are vulgar and ignorant, he will be vile 
and personal. The rule will be found to hold good. — From the 
Newark Daily Advertiser. 

The Tribune to-day eclipses all its previous enterprise, by pub- 
lishing a five-column report of the battle of Gravelotte, received by 
cable from its special correspondent, who was on the field by the 
side of King William and Bismarck. It is a graphic account of one 
of the greatest battles of modern times, and one which the Tribune 
thinks will prove the decisive one of the war. — From the Spring- 
field Union. 

Dr. Russell is again heard from, and his second dispatch is, if 
possible, more remarkable than the first. "Notwithstanding all my 
efforts," he says, " I did not succeed in reaching Bazaine." The 
melancholy result of the Doctor's failure to connect is that the 
French Marshal is "shut up in an equilateral triangle, Metz being 
its south-eastern apex." The Doctor, however, does not abandon 
the attempt to solve the geometrical problem, and adds: "I am 
about to make another effort to reach Bazaine, but it is very dan- 
gerous and expensive." This pecuniary hint should not be lost on 
the Sun, which ought to make an advance so that Russell may make 
one. Another statement by the Doctor is grievous to certain sym- 
pathizers : " The Prussians don't care about Americans any more 
than they care about the Chinese." In order to understand the 



280 HORACE GREELEY 

German estimate of us, we should now ascertain precisely how 
much the Prussians care about Chinese. The situation is badly 
complicated, and the Sun can find no hope for the dark future but 
in the instant dismissal of Bancroft Davis. — From the Brooklyn 
Eagle. 

TO PLACE THE CREDIT WHERE IT BELONGS. 

To the Editor of the Tribune. 

Sir : — In that remarkably vivid description of the battle of Grave- 
lotte in this morning's Tribune, you claim it as coming- from your 
Special Correspondent, who was present at the headquarters of 
the King'. The Sun prints an epitome — in this morning's issue — ■ 
of the same dispatch from their Special Correspondent, who was 
also present at the headquarters of the King. 

Query— Does the Sun tell the truth ? "Will the Sun publish your 
answer? H. K. 

New York, Aug. 24, 1870. 

Answer. — The dispatch referred to, was written by a very ca- 
pable Special Correspondent of the Tribune, engaged solely by us 
for war service, paid solely by us, and admitted to the Prussian 
headquarters, as the Tribune correspondent, by a pass from Von 
Moltke, granted on the recommendation of Count Bismarck. He 
sent his letter through by special messenger from the battle-field 
to the Tribune's London office, whence it was transmitted to the 
Tribune by telegraph. The Sun had no more to do with him than 
it has with the Emperor of China. Instead of his being its Special 
Correspondent, it does not even to this hour know his name ! Any 
claim that he is its correspondent, is a deliberate and shameless 
falsehood, told with the certainty that only among the most ignor- 
ant could it escape detection. We answer "H. K.'s " inquiry — we 
add no comments. Whether a newspaper capable of such a course 
can be believed at any time or on any subject, is a question which 
every reader must settle for himself. — [Ed. 

THE NEW YORK WORLD'S TRIBUTE TO THE TRIBUNE'S ACCOUNT 
OF THE BATTLE OF GEAVELOTTE. 

It is because the cable has brought the battles of yesterday by the 
Rhine practically as near to the dwellers on the Hudson and Mis- 
sissippi, as the battles by the Potomac and the Shenandoah of seveUl 
years ago, that those battles are watched with an interest so curi- 
ous and so general. The cable has made this later shock of arras 
clear and close to us, and made the interest in it a contemporaneous 



AS AN EDITOR. 281 

and universal interest, instead of a historical and partial interest, 
which alone all former European wars were ahle to excite in Amer- 
ican readers. A transcendental teacher has complained that 

The light oiitspeeiling telegraph 
Bears nothing on iis beam; " 

but it is not likely that even he would consider as "nothing" an 
achievement which enables common minds in some degree to ap- 
prehend the postulate of the transcendentalists that time and space 
are not realities, and which makes the transactions of the whole 
civilized world topics of thought and of discourse to every civil- 
ized person in it. 

The testimony of the Right Honorable John Bright and others, 
are well worth a place in this connection, to establish the greatness 
of the Tribune, and they are as follows : 

The St. Joseph Valley Register, a paper published at South 
Bend, Indiana, held the following language : 

The influence of the Tribune upon public opinion, is greater even 
than its conductors claim for it. Its claims, with scarce an excep- 
tion, though the people may reject them at first, yet ripen into 
strength insensibly. 

A few years since, the Tribune commenced the advocacy of the 
principle of Free Lands, for the landless. 

The first bill upon that subject, presented by Mr. Greeley to 
Congress, was hooted out of that body. But who doubts what the 
result would be, if the people of the whole nation had the right to 
vote upon the question to-day ? 

It struck the first blow in earnest, at the corruptions of tho Mile- 
age system, and in return, Congressmen of all parties heaped ap- 
probrium upon it, and calumny upon its editor. 

A corrupt Congress may postpone its Beform, but is there any 
doubt of what nine-tenths of the whole people would accomplish 
on this subject, if direct legislation were in their hands ? 

It has inveighed in severe language against the flimsy penalties 
which the American Legislatures have imposed for offense upon 
female virtue. 

And how many States, our own among the number, have tight- 
ened tip their legislation upon that subject within the last half-doz- 
en years ? 

' The blows that it directs against intemperance, have more power 
than the combined attacks of half the distinctive temperance jour- 
nals in the land. It has contended for some plan by which the peo- 
ple should choose their Presidents, rather than national conven- 
tions ; and he must be a careless observer of the progress of events 



282 HORACE GREELEY 

who does not see that the election of 1856 is more likely to be won 
by a Western statesman, pledged solely to the Pacific Railroad, and 
honest Government, than by any political nominee. 

And, to conclude, the numerous industrial associations of work- 
ers to manufacture iron, boots and shoes, hats, &c, on their own 
account, with the joint stock family blocks of buildings, so popular 
now in Hew York, model wash-houses, &c, &c, seem like a faint 
recognition, at least of the main principles of fourierism, (whose 
details we like as little as any one,) opportunity for work for all 
and economy in the expenses and labor of the family. 

From across the Atlantic, also, came compliments for the Tri- 
bune. 

In one of the debates in the House of Commons, upon the aboli- 
tion of the advertisement duty, Mr. Bright used a copy of the Tri- 
bune, as Burke once did a French Republican dagger, for the pur- 
poses of his argument. Mr. Bright said : 

He had a newspaper there, (the New York Tribune,) which, he 
was bound to say, was as good as any published in England, this 
week. 

[The Hon. Member here opened out a copy of the New York Tri- 
bune, and exhibited it to the House.] 

It was printed with a finer type than any London daily paper. 
It was exceedingly good as a journal; quite sufficient for all the 
purposes of a newspaper. 

[Spreading it out before the House, the honorable gentleman de- 
tailed its contents, commencing with very numerous advertise- 
ments]. 

It contained various articles, amongst others, one against public 
dinners, in which he thought honorable members would fully 
agree — one criticisian our Chancellor of the Exchequer's budget 
in part justly — and one upon the Manchester school ; but he must 
say, as far as the Manchester school went, it did not do them jus- 
tice at all. [Laughter.] 

He ventured to say that there was not a better paper than this 
in London. 

Moreover, it especially wrote in favor of temperance and anti- 
slavery, and though honorable members were not all members of 
the temperance society, perhaps, they yet, he was sure, all admit- 
ted the advantages of temperance, while not a voice could be lifted 
there in favor of slavery. 

Here, then, was a newspaper advocating great principles, and 
conducted in all respects with the greatest propriety — a newspaper 
in which he found not a syllable that he might not put on his table 



AS AN EDITOR. 283 

and allow his wife and daughter to read with satisfaction. And 
this was placed on the tahle every morning for 1 d. [Hear, hear.] 

What he wanted, then, to ask the Government, was this : How 
comes it, and for what good end, and hy what contrivance of fiscal 
oppression — for it can he nothing else — was it, that while the 
workman of New York could have such a paper on his breakfast 
tahle every morning for 1 d., the workman of London must go 
without, or pay fivepence for the accommodation? [Hear, hear.] 

How was it possible that the latter could keep up with his trans- 
atlantic competitor in the race, if one had daily intelligence of 
everything that was stirring in the world, while the other was 
kept completely in ignorance ? [Hear, hear.] 

Were they not running a race, in the face of the world, with 
the people of America ? 

Were not the Collins and Cunard lines calculating their voyages 
to within sixteen minutes of time ? 

And if, while such a race was going on, the one artisan paid five- 
pence for the daily intelligence which the other obtained for a 
penny, how was it possible that the former could keep his place in 
the international rivalry ? [Hear, hear.] 

But to the Tribune, and to Horace Greeley, are the American 
people more indebted for the constant effort by each, to make the 
world wiser and better by the diffusion of knowledge to every de- 
partment of human investigation, and to every family and child 
throughout the wide domain of the country. Education, morality, 
industry and eternal justice, have constantly received from Hor- 
ace Greeley and the Tribune, a strong and willing helping 
hand. Still, beyond all differences of opinion on politics, relig- 
ion, and other vexed questions of public interest, the Tribune 
has been the most independent public journal in America. It has 
always been a great medium, through which every public question 
could have a full and fair hearing before the people. Every man 
and woman who had a cause or complaint to argue, or make to 
the public, had only to apply to Horace Greeley, and the Tri- 
bune was opened without delay, to friend or enemy. Fully com- 
prehending the great importance of the Tribune, does not 
impartial judgment, as well as justice, accord to Horace Gree- 
ley the highest rank of any American editor ? Horace Greeley 
must be viewed, and his principles and labors weighed, not as a 



284 HORACE GREELEY 

man made of mere incidents and accidents, but he must be estimated 
by the labor of his entire life, which has been one constant triumph 
over circumstances and conditions ; a rising in conformity to an ab- 
solute law of mentality and mastery above lower conditions and ob- 
stacles, which belonged to each stage of his growth. His entire 
life-line of mentality and use, presents the harmony and ultima- 
tion of growth which nature supplies to the vine and the tree. He 
is not the growth of fortuitous circumstance. He was not thrust 
from the gorge of civilization upon the crested wave of humanity ; 
but the mental and moral bight to which he has attained, is the 
legitimate or natural growth of primary principles, divinely organ- 
ized in his being. No man has been more faithful to himself, 
and such has been his great work, his mighty power, and useful- 
ness, that the most honored tribute which the friends of this true 
moral hero of our race can inscribe to his memory, will be to re- 
cord in golden letters, upon the tablet of his tomb, to be read in 
after- ages, by the generous, the hopeful and the good, as the years 
and the seasons come and go : 

HORACE GREELEY, 

the 

FOUNDER AND EDITOR 

OF THE 

NEW YORK TRIBUNE. 

The following remarks upon the character and importance of 
the public press, were written by Mr. Greeley, and published in 
the Jeffersonian, March, 1838. The reader will find them, in 
every way, worthy to append to the preceding chapter : 

THE PUBLIC PRESS. 

"Within the last fifty years, a new power — infantile, inefficient, 
and disregarded through the previous century ; unknown to all 
former time — has arisen to accelerate the onward march of human 
improvement and influence, vitally, the dcsl inies of the world. Un- 
der its potent sway has been established the great tribunal of pub- 
lic opinion, to which the haughtiest despot feels himself amenable 
— before which the most insidious, the most daring, and the most 



AS AN EDITOK. 285 

impregnable enemy of the liberties and the happiness of man, is 
made to tremble. This power, is that of the press ; and pre-emi- 
nently, that of the periodica] press. We do not say that the amount 
of truths actually disseminated and inculcated through the medi- 
um of periodicals is greater than through books. That may, or 
may not be. But the diffusion of intelligence through books, is 
irregular and casual, while through periodicals, it is systematic and 
certain. The despot in his cabinet, engaged in forging new fetters 
for his subjects — the military chief, who dares contemplate em- 
ploying the arms of his soldiery for the subversion of his country's 
liberties — the demagogue in the midst of his cabal, who, while 
fawning on, and caressing the dear people, is seeking to abuse their 
confidence to the gratification of his own base ambition, or baser 
rapacity — all alike with the humbler enemies of social order, and 
the supremacy of law, have an instinctive terror of a free, virtu- 
ous, able and independent press. 

They feel that its eye is inflexibly upon them — that it is attract- 
ing toward them the stern gaze of the millions, whom they would 
fain make their dupes and their victims — that the result of its scru- 
tiny will be evinced, but transiently in astonishment, and then, in 
indignant hostility and resolute defiance. They know that the 
hollowness of their professions, the selfishness of their designs, 
will be certainly discovered, and unsparingly exposed by this po- 
tent champion of truth and right. Knowing all this, they often 
seek, when they cannot suppress, to turn this mighty power against 
its natural alliance with the many, and to render it the supple in- 
strument of their purposes — the dispenser of darkness instead of 
light. In this they are but partially and transiently successful; and 
the attempt is a reluctant and indirect tribute to the innate power of 
the press. Of the many important truths which the last half cen- 
tury has established, we regard none as more settled or indubita- 
ble than this — that not only is it morally impossible that a govern- 
ment should remain essentially despotic or wholly corrupt in any 
country where a free press is sustained and cherished, but it is just 
as impossible to maintain a truly Republican government, or any 
considerable extent of territory in the absence of such a press. In- 
telligence is the life-blood of liberty ; and intelligence will be dif- 
fused efficiently, and certainly only through known and appropriate 
channels. The most powerful tyrants have ever most dreaded the 
influence of a free press. Napoleon, when he resisted the demand 
of Lafayette, that the press should be unshackled, did so, expressly 
on the ground, that a compliance would expel him from France. 
Did such a fear ever darken the mind of Washington ? 



286 HORACE GREELEY 

Thus far, we have spoken of the press only as the great alley of 
human liberty, and of each of them as dependent on the other for 
its healthful, beneficial and secure existence. Can we err in the 
moral we would deduce therefrom, that it behooves the friends 
and supporters of liberty, as a first duty to the good cause, to 
their country, themselves and their children, to cherish and sus- 
tain the public press — to elevate its character and extend the 
sphere of its usefulness ? Can there be a doubt of the correctness 
of this general proposition ? If not, let us proceed to its practi- 
cal application. 

It is the duty of every citizen of a free country, who is entitled 
to exercise the inestimable right of suffrage, to take regularly and 
read thoroughly, at least one public journal. This is due, first to 
his country, which has imposed on him a vitally important duty, 
for the maintenance of the public liberties, and of good govern- 
ment in the just expectation that he will qualify himself for its 
faithful and proper discharge. This, it would seem needless to 
say, he cannot do without an accurate acquaintance with the poli- 
tics and events of the day, so far at least as their general features 
are regarded. 

He cannot safely or honorably calculate on acquiring this knowl- 
edge from an occasional glance at a newspaper in a bar-room, nor 
by taxing altogether the good will of his neighbor. He owes it to 
himself, also, to take a paper, since, without the information 
which can only be surely acquired from the public journals, he 
will speedily fall behind his neighbors and townsmen in intelli- 
gence, in influence, in their respect, and — if he be not vastly self- 
conceited — in his own. He is liable to daily imposition, not only 
from the falsehoods and misrepresentations of demagogues, but 
his ignorance of the fluctuations of prices, in money matters, of 
the prospects of crops, of war, etc., places him at the mercy of 
every knave to profit by his infatuation. He must be innocent 
indeed if he flatters himself that none will have the heart to do it. 

But the man of family rests under a still further obligation. 
The education of his children is among the most sacred of his 
duties. We need not here expatiato on the variety and extent of 
acquirements which in our day are properly comprehended in the 
term Education. No man now supposes that a mere ability to 
read and write endurably, with a smattering of two or three other 
branches of school instruction, is the thing. When we speak of 
an education, we mean simply the inculcation of such fundamen- 
tal truth as is necessary to enable a youth to discharge properly 
and creditably the duties pertaining to his position in life — no 



AS AN EDITOR. 287 

matter whether it be that of a farmer, a blacksmith, a miller or a 
lawyer. Whatever avocation he may choose for a livelihood, he 
is by birthright a free man — a judge over the actions of the rulers 
of the. land — an integral portion of the governing power. This is 
a precious inheritance, and involves mighty responsibilities. We 
shall not institute a comparison between the instruction obtained 
in schools, and that derived from an acquaintance with the events 
and the interests of the day. Both are indispensable. We will 
say, however, that, while the father who starves the intellects of 
his children in order to leave them a few hundred dollars more 
wealth at his death, is justly regarded as the most mistaken of 
misers — we must also regard him who pays twenty dollars a year 
for the instruction of his children, yet grudges to expend half that 
sum in such periodicals as would excite their interest, enlarge 
their information, and elevate their tastes, as actuated by a most 
miserable and inconsistent parsimony. 

We have labored to prove that it is the interest and duty, as it 
should be the pleasure, of every man who is able to work, or in 
any way to live without dependence on public charity, to take at 
least one public journal. What its character should be, must de- 
pend mucn on his own taste ; though it he should prefer a sheet 
surcharged with calumny, scurrility and malignity — the mere in- 
strument of faction and the offspring of low ambition — he will 
give us leave to wonder rather than admire. There are hundreds 
of newspapers printed in this country (and the case is still worse 
in England and elsewhere,) which habitually violate all the decen- 
cies of life, and indulge in language and temper which cannot be 
thrown in the way of children without injury to their manners, 
their morals and their principles. These errors and excesses, like 
the beacons which point out dangers to the mariner, will rather 
guide the course of the careful and well-disposed head of a family, 
than discourage him altogether. 

Great as is still the number of viciously conducted journals, 
their proportion to the deserving is far less than formerly, and the 
improvement is still in progress. We will only say, then, that he 
who can afford to take but one paper, should take the very best 
one which his means will command, taking care that it embodies, 
as far as possible, that kind of information which is essential to 
the discharge of his own responsibilities. 

But there is another, and we trust a much larger class, in this 
country who are able to minister to their intellectual wants more 
considerably, and to do something for the encouragement and sup- 
port of the Public Press. We say a larger class, for in this we in- 



288 HORACE GREELEY AS AN EDITOR. 

elude all who are not bankrupt, and who can procure a week's 
physical subsistence for their families with the proceeds of five 
day's labor. We believe that no man, whose yearly income 
amounts to five hundred dollars, and avIio can live comfortably on 
four-fifths of it, can invest a quarter of the surplus so advan- 
tageously to himself and family, as in well selected books and 
periodicals. For any man whose yearly income exceeds one thou- 
sand dollars a year, the appropriation of one-tenth of his annual in- 
come to purposes of education and of mental gratification and im- 
provement would be little enough. That mind must be a paltry 
one, indeed, which is not worth one-tenth of the expense incur- 
red in the sustenance and pampering of the body. And yet, how 
many there are who complain of the tax imposed by education and 
by "taking so many newspapers," who do not expend for both so 
much as they have wasted in a single week's amusement or dissi- 
pation ! "ltake so many newspapers that I have neither time to 
read them, nor money to pay for them," is the language of many a 
man who spends in injurious indulgences and in idle company, 
twice the time and money which would be required for reading 
and paying for the whole of them. Is this rational ? Is it just to 
himself? Is it the example he would set before his children ? 



CHAPTER VI. 

HORACE GREELEY AS A POLITICIAN. 




R. WEBSTER has defined the politician to be, in a 
s^isr' higher sense, a statesman ; and, in a lower sense, to be 
a man cunningly devoted to the promotion of party pol- 
itics. It seems that a more expressive definition in the lower sense 
would be, that the politician is a quack statesman. 

Like quacks in all other branches of business, the politician is 
more successful in promoting party interests, than the real, genu- 
ine statesman. He is more ardent, and more pretentious for the 
rights of the people, and the welfare of the State and nation, 
than the genuine statesman. He too, is more usually successful 
in his efforts to deceive the people by means of intrigue and pre- 
tended friendship, for the public good. The .genuine politician o£ 
the lower order, is always ambitious, and almost universally, 
selfishly, devoted to party, and rarely manifests any self-sacrific- 
ing devotion to country or race. And, although the politician in- 
cidentally belongs to all governments, it appears, that since the 
organization of the American Union, this land has been more 
over crowded with them, than any other nation. 

Party politics in this country, seem to be peculiarly adapted to 
the pestiferous breed of prowling, pretentious politicians, that 
swarm in every capital and grog-shop in the land. Nor does it 
seem possible to check their increase or their rage, nor to rescue 
the people from their clutches, or the States and nation from the 
foul polution of their corrupted ambition. 

While it is true that a man can be a politician, and not a states- 
man, it is not true that a statesman cannot be a politician. In 
fact every statesman is, in some sense, a politician. He is de- 
19 



290 HORACE GREELEY 

voted to certain policies and principles of government, and seeks, 
through party organization, to impress them upon the body poli- 
tic, in the faith, that the best interests of the State and nation, 
demand their adoption. 

Politicians who combine the statesman, are usually of a higher 
order of moral character and political integrity, than those who 
demagogue and truckle for power. They seek to promote their 
principles and policies by fair dealing with their fellows, and 
faithfully and boldly represent to all, their views and purposes. 

To this special and higher class of politicians, does Horace 
Greeley belong. Self-willed, and endowed with a high moral 
nature, he could not, many sense, be a hypocrite, nor a truckling, 
groveling demagogue. He is always bold, outspoken and candid 
in all his dealings with the people. And with a superior intelli- 
gence, he has, without difficulty, been able to clearly comprehend 
and understand public questions ; and has always, fairly and 
squarely presented his views, from time to time, upon every sub- 
ject of public concern, and stood by the people without " varia- 
bleness or shadow of turning." 

Still more, he has always been true to his own instincts and con- 
victions of right, and fearlessly denounced or vindicated friend or 
foe, before the public. In fact, so frank and outspoken has Mr. 
Greeley always been on every subject, whether of a personal 
nature, or relating to public affairs, that his own party friends 
have regarded many of his acts as unwise, and devoid of policy. 

A striking instance of Mr. Greeley's outspoken manner, in 
utter indifference to party policy, or party fealty, occurred at the 
time of the nomination of General Scott for President, by the 
Whig party. Not satisfied with the platform adopted by the 
national Convention, Mr. Greeley at once submitted through the 
Tribune, his own platform, as follows, and with strict adhesion 
to its principles, gave his whole support in favor of the election of 
Scott : 

OUR PLATFORM 

I. As to the Tariff — Duties on imports — specific so far as prac- 



AS A POLITICIAN. 291 

ticable, affording ample protection to undeveloped or peculiarly 
exposed-branches of our national industry, and adequate revenue 
for the support of the government, and the payment of its debts. 

Low duties, as a general rule, on rude, bulky staples, whereof 
the cost of transportation is of itself, equivalent to a heavy impost, 
and high duties, on such fabrics, wares, &c, as come into depress- 
ing competition with our own depressed, infantile, or endangered 
pursuits. 

II. As to National "Works — Liberal appropriations yearly, for 
the improvement of rivers and harbors, and such eminently na- 
tional enterprises as the Sant St. Marie canal, and the Pacific 
railroad, from the Mississippi. 

Cut down the expenditures for ports, ships, troops and warlike 
enginery of all kinds, and add largely to those for works which do 
not "perish in the using," but will remain for ages to benefit our 
people, strengthen the Union, and contribute, far more, to the na- 
tional defense, than the costly machinery of war ever could. 

III. As to Foreign Policy — Do unto others, (the weak and op- 
pressed, as well as the powerful and mighty,) as we would them 
do unto us. 

No shuffling, no evasion of duties, nor shirking responsibilities ; 
but a firm front to despots, a prompt rebuke to every outrage on 
the law of nations, and a generous, active sympathy with the vic- 
tims of tyranny and usurpation. 

IV. As to Slavery — No interference by Congress with its exis- 
tence in any slave State, but a firm and vigilant resistance to its 
legalization, in any national territory, or the acquisition of any for- 
eign territory, wherein slavery may exist. 

A perpetual protest against the hunting of fugitive slaves in free 
States, as an irresistible case of agitation, ill feeling and aliena- 
tion between the North and the South. 

A firm, earnest, inflexible testimony, in common with the whole 
non-slaveholding Christian world, that human slavery, though le- 
gally protected, is morally wrong, and ought to be speedily ter- 
minated. 

V. As to State Eights — More regard for, and less cant about 
them. 

VI. One Presidential Term, and no man a candidate for any 
office while wielding the vast patronage of the national execu- 
tive. 

VII. Reform in Congress — Payment by the session, with a rig- 
orous deduction for each day's absence, and a reduction and 
straightening of mileage. 

He would suggest $2,000 compensation for the first (or long,) and 



292 HORACE GREELEY 

$1,000 for the second, (or short) session ; with ten cents per mile 
for traveling (by a bee-line) to and from "Washington. 

Another noted instance, exemplifying the peculiar independence 
of Mr. Greeley, and the strict adhesion to that which he believed 
to be right, occurred in the political struggle of 1858 : After 
Stephen A. Douglas had so persistently opposed, in the United 
States Senate, the political policy of President Buchanan, on the 
Kansas question, Mr. Greeley advised the Republicans of Illi- 
nois io support Douglas for re-election to the Senate, in direct 
opposition to their own judgment, and in opposition to Abraham 
Lincoln. The position of Mr. Greeley was regarded by the Re- 
publicans of that State, as unwise and impolitic, yet they did not 
charge him of a want of fidelity on his part, to the new-born Re- 
publican party. Nor did the Republicans really comprehend his 
higher views of the principles involved in the contest ; they did not 
fully understand Mr. Greeley's motive to resist the slave policy 
of Buchanan, and win a victory for freedom, by the re-election 
of Douglas. Nor did Mr. Greeley fully comprehend the great 
attachment existing between Mr. Lincoln and his Republican 
friends in Illinois. Such was their devotion to Mr. Lincoln, that 
no foreign advice could possibly have induced them to put the 
then future President aside, and take up Mr. Douglas. 

A still more marked instance of Mr. Greeley's independent 
political action, at variance with which politicians call policy, oc- 
curred in the act of placing his name upon the bail-bond of Jef- 
ferson Davis. This act was regarded by Mr. Greeley's party, 
as an extraordinary stroke of bad policy, and by opposing parti- 
sans, as one of his crotchets. In fact, an act so seemingly 
impolitic, was not overlooked with impunity by Mr. Greeley's 
partisan friends. Differing so widely in judgment upon the pro- 
priety of the act, thousands of Republicans were so incensed, that 
they refused, for a time, to continue their subscription to the Tri- 
bune, and other thousands refused to take copies of Mr. Gree- 
ley's "American Conflict," for which they had already sub- 
scribed. So enraged at the act was the Union League Club, of 
New York city, to which Mr. Greeley belonged that on his re- 



AS A POLITICIAN. 293 

turn from Richmond, the members decided to call him to account 
for this extraordinary act. They felt that he had broken faith 
with the party, and thereupon decided to call him to account, and 
that he must either be expelled from the Club, or severely cen- 
sured. In due time, notice was sent to Mr. Greeley, informing 
him of the purpose of the Club, and requesting him to be present 
at the next meeting. He promptly declined to attend the meet- 
ing of the Club, for trial, and denied that its members had any 
right to pass judgment upon him, or to call in question any of his 
acts. 

He therefore replied to the officers of the Club, in the Tribune 
of May 22, 1867, in the following caustic manner: 

BY THESE PRESENTS, GREETING ! 

To Messrs. Geo. W. Blunt, John A. Kennedy, John 0. Stone, 
Stephen Hyatt, and thirty others, members of the Union League 
Club. 

Gentlemen : — I was favored on the 16th inst., by an official note 
from our ever-courteous President, John Jay, notifying me that a 
requisition had been presented to him for "a special meeting of 
the Club, at an early day, for the purpose of taking into consider- 
ation the conduct of Horace Greeley, a member of the Club, 
who has become a bondsman for Jefferson Davis, late chief officer 
of the Rebel government." Mr. Jay continues : 

" As I have reason to believe that the signers, or some of them, 
disapprove of the conduct which they propose the Club shall con- 
sider, it is clearly due, both to the Club and to yourself, that you 
should have the opportunity of being heard on the subject ; I beg, 
therefore, to ask on what evening it will be convenient for you 
that I call the meeting," etc., etc. 

In my prompt reply, I requested the President to give you reas- 
onable time for reflection, but assured him that I wanted none ; 
since I should not attend the meeting, nor ask any friend to do so, 
and should make no defense, nor offer aught in the way of self- 
vindication. I am sure my friends in the Club will not construe 
this as implying disrespect ; but it is not my habit to take part in 
any discussions which may arise among other gentlemen, as to my 
fitness to enjoy their society. That is their affair altogether, and 
to them I leave it. 

The single point whereon I have any occasion or wish to address 
you, is your virtual implication that there is something novel, un- 



294 HORACE GREELEY 

expected, astounding, in my conduct in the matter suggested by 
them as the basis of their action. I choose not to rest under this 
assumption, but to prove that you, being persons of ordinary in- 
telligence, must know better. On this point, I cite you to a scru- 
tiny of the record : 

The surrender of Gen. Lee was made known in this city, at 11 
P. M. of Sunday, April 9, 1865, and fitly announced in the Tribune 
of next morning, April 10. On that very day, I wrote, and next 
morning printed in these columns, a leader, entitled, "Magnanim- 
ity in Triumph," wherein I said: 

" We hear men say : — ' Yes, forgive the great mass of those who 
have been misled into rebellion, but punish the leaders as they de- 
serve.' But who can accurately draw the line between leaders and 
followers in the premises ? By what test shall they be discrimina- 
ted ? * * * Where is your touchstone of leadership ? We 
know of none. 

"Nor can we agree with those who would punish the original 
plotters of secession, yet spare their ultimate and scarcely willing 
converts. On the contrary, while we would revive or inflame re- 
sentment against none of them, we feel far less antipathy to the 
original upholders of ' the resolutions of '98 ' — to the disciples of 
Calhoun and McDufiie — to the nullifiers of 1832, and the ' State 
Bights ' men of 1850 — than to the John Bells, Humphrey Marshalls, 
and Alex. H. H. Stuarts, who were schooled in the national faith, 
and who, in becoming disunionists and rebels, trampled on the 
profession of a life-time, and spurned the logic wherewith they 
had so often unanswerably demonstrated that secession was 
treason. * * * We consider Jefferson Davis this day, a less 
culpable traitor than John Bell. 

"But we cannot believe it wise or well to take the life of any 
man who shall have submitted to the national authority. The ex- 
ecution of even one such, would be felt as a personal stigma by 
every one who had ever aided the Rebel cause. Each would say- 
to himself, ' I am as culpable as he ; we differ only in that I am 
deemed of comparatively little consequence.' A single confeder- 
ate led out to execution, would be evermore enshrined in a million 
hearts as a conspicuous hero and martyr. We cannot realize that 
it would be wholesome or safe — we are sure it would not be mag- 
nanimous — to give the overpowered disloyalty of the South such a 
shrine. Would the throne of the House of Hanover stand more 
firmly, had Charles Edward been caught and executed after Cullo- 
den ? Is Austrian domination in Hungary more stable to-day for 
the hanging of Nagy Sander and his twelve compatriots, after the 
surrender of Vilagos ? 

" We plead against passions certain to be, at this moment, fierce 
and intolerant ; but on our side are the ages and the voice of His- 
tory. We plead for a restoration of the Union, against a policy 
which would afford a momentary gratification, at the cost of years 
of perilous hate and bitterness. *###*## 

" Those who invoke military execution for the vanquished, or 



AS A POLITICIAN. 295 

even for their leaders, we suspect, will not generally be found 
among the few who have long been exposed to unjust odium, as 
haters of the South, because they abhorred slavery. And, as to the 
long oppressed and degraded blacks — so lately the slaves, destined 
still to be the neighbors, and (we trust,) at no distant day, the fel- 
low-citizens, of the Southern whites — we are sure that their voice, 
could it be authentically uttered, would ring out decidedly, sonor- 
ously, on the side of clemency — of humanity." 

On the next day I had some more in this spirit, and on the 13th, 
an elaborate leader, entitled, "Peace — Punishment," in the course 
of which I said : 

"The New York Times, doing injustice to its own sagacity in a 
characteristic attempt to sail between wind and water, says : 
'Let us hang Jeff Davis and spare the rest.' * * * We do not 
concur in the advice. Davis did not devise nor instigate the Re- 
bellion ; on the contrary, he was one of the latest and most reluc- 
tant of the notables of the Cotton States to denounce definitely the 
Union. His prominence is purely official and representative: the 
only reason for hanging him is that you therein condemn and stig- 
matize more persons than in hanging any one else. There is not 
an ex-Rebel in the world — no matter how penitent — who will not 
have unpleasant sensations about the neck on the day when the 
Confederate President is to be hung. And to what good end ? 

"We insist that this matter must not be regarded in any narrow 
aspect. We are most anxious to secure the assent of the South to 
emancipation ; not that assent which the condemned gives to 
being hung when he shakes hands with his jailer and thanks him 
for past acts of kindness ; but that hearty assent which can only 
be won by magnanimity. Perhaps the Rebels, as a body, would 
have given, even one year ago, as large and as hearty a vote for 
hanging the writer of this article as any other man living: hence, 
it more especially seems to him important to prove that the civili- 
zation based on free labor is of a higher and humaner type than 
that based on slavery. We cannot realize that the gratification to 
enure to our friends from the hanging of any one man, or fifty 
men, should be allowed to outweigh this consideration." 

On the following day, I wrote again : 

# # # # -yr G en treat the President promptly to do and dare 
in the cause of magnanimity. The southern mind is now open to 
kindness, and may be magnetically affected by generosity. Let as- 
surance at once be given that there is to be a general amnesty and 
no general confiscation. This is none the less the dictate of wis- 
dom because it is also the dictate of mercy. What we ask is that 
the President say in effect, ' Slavery having, through rebellion, 
committed suicide, let the North and the South unite to bury the 
carcass, and then clasp hands around his grave.' " 

The evening of that day, witnessed that most appalling calamity, 
the murder of President Lincoln, which seemed in an instant to 
curdle all the milk of human kindness in twenty millions of 
American breasts. At once, insidious efforts were set on foot to 
turn the fury thus engendered against me, because of my pertina- 



296 HORACE GREELEY 

cious advocacy of mercy to the vanquished. Chancing to enter 
the Club-house the next (Saturday) evening, I received a full 
broadside of your scowls, 'ere we listened to a clerical harangue, 
intended to prove that Mr. Lincoln had been Providentially re- 
moved, because of his notorious leanings toward clemency, in 
order to make way for a successor who would give the Rebels a 
full measure of stern justice. I was soon made to comprehend 
that I had no sympathizers — or none who dared seem such — in 
your crowded assemblage. And some maladroit admirer having, 
a few days afterward, made the club a present of my portrait, its 
bare reception was resisted in a speech from the Chair by your 
then President — a speech whose vigorous invective was justified 
solely by my pleadings for lenity to the Rebels. m 

At once, a concerted howl of denunciation and rage was sent up 
from every side against me by the little creatures whom God, for 
some inscrutable purpose, permits to edit a majority of our minor 
journals, echoed by a yell of "Stop my paper t" from thousands of 
imperfectly instructed readers of the Tribune. One impudent 
puppy wrote me to answer categorically whether I was or was not 
in favor of hanging Jeff Davis, adding that I must stop his paper 
if I were not ! Scores volunteered assurances that I was defying 
public opinion — that most of my readers were against me — as if I 
could be induced to write what they wished said rather than what 
they needed to be told. I never before realized so vividly the 
baseness of the editorial vocation according to the vulgar concep- 
tion of it. The din raised about my ears now is nothing to that I 
then endured and despised. I am humiliated by the reflection that 
it is (or was) in the power of such insects to annoy me, even by 
pretending to discover with surprise something that I have for 
years been publicly, emphatically proclaiming. 

I must hurry over much that deserves a paragraph, to call your 
attention distinctly to occurrences in November last. Upon the 
Republicans having, by desperate effort, handsomely carried our 
State against a formidable looking combination of recent and 
venomous apostates with our natural adversaries, a cry arose from 
several quarters that I ought to be chosen U. S. Senator. At once, 
kind, discreet friends swarmed about me, whispering " Only keep 
still about Universal Amnesty, and your election is certaiu. Just 
be quiet a few weeks, and you can say what you please thereafter. 
You have no occasion to speak now." I slept on the well-meant 
suggestion, and deliberately concluded that I could not, injustice 
to myself, defer to it. I ccald not purchase office by even passive, 
negative dissimulation. No man should be enabled to say to me, in 



' AS A POLITICIAN. 297 

truth, "If I had supposed you would persist in your rejected, con- 
demned Amnesty hobby, I would not have given you my vote." 
So I wrote and published/on the 27th of that month, my manifesto, 
entitled " The true basis of Re-construction," wherein, repelling 
the idea that I proposed a dicker with the ex-Rebels-, I explicitly 
said : 

"I am for Universal Amnesty — so far as immunity from fear of 
punishment or confiscation is concerned — even though impartial 
suffrage should, for the present, be defeated. I did think it desir- 
able that Jefferson Davis should be arraigned and tried for trea- 
son ; and it still 6eems to me, that this might properly have been 
done many months ago. But it was not done then ; and now, I 
believe, it would result in far more evil than good. It would re- 
kindle passions that have nearly burned out, or been hushed to 
sleep ; it would fearfully convulse and agitate the South ; it would 
arrest the progress of reconciliation, and kindly feeling there ; it 
would cost a large sum directly, and a far larger indirectly ; and — 
tanless the jury were scandalously packed — it would result in a 
non-agreement or no verdict. I can imagine no good end to be sub- 
served by such a trial ; and— holding Davis neither better nor worse 
than several others — would have him treated as they are." 

Is it conceivable that men who can read, and who were made 
aware of this declaration — for most of you were present and shout- 
ed approval of Mr. Fessenden's condemnation of my views at the 
Club, two or three evenings thereafter — can now pretend that my 
aiding to have Davis bailed, is something novel and unexpected ? 

Gentlemen, I shall not attend your meeting this evening. 1 
have an engagement out of town, and shall keep it. I do not rec- 
ognize you as capable of judging, or even fully apprehending me. 
You evidently regard me as a weak sentimentalist, misled by a 
maudlin philosophy. I arraign you as narrow-minded blockheads, 
who would like to be useful to a great and good cause, but don't 
know how. Your attempt to base a great, enduring party on the 
hate and wrath necessarily engendered by a bloody civil war, is 
as though you should plant a colony on an iceberg which had some- 
how drifted into a tropical ocean. I tell you here that, out of a 
life earnestly devoted to the good of human kind, your children 
will select my going to Richmond, and signing that bail-bond as 
the wisest act, and will feel that it did more for freedom and hu- 
manity, than all of you were competent to do, though you had 
lived to the age of Methuselah. 

I ask nothing of you, then, but that you proceed to your end by 
a direct, frank, manly way. Don't sidle off into a mild resolution 
of censure, but move the expulsion which you purposed, and which 
I deserve, if I deserve any reproach whatever. All I care for is, 
that you make this a square, stand-up fight, and record your judg- 



298 HORACE GREELEY 

merit by yeas and nays. I care not how few vote with me, nor how 
many vote against me ; for I know that the latter will repent it in 
dust and ashes before three years have passed. Understand, once 
for all, that I dare you and defy you, and that I propose to fight it 
out on the line that I have held from the day of Lee's surrender. 
So long as any man was seeking to overthrow our government, he 
was my enemy ; from the hour in which he laid down his arms, he 
was my formerly erring countryman. So long as any is at heart 
opposed to the national unity, the Federal authority, or to that 
assertion of the equal rights of all men which has become practi- 
cally identified with loyalty and nationality, I shall do my best to 
deprive him of power; but, whenever he ceases to be thus, I de- 
mand his restoration to all the privileges of American citizenship. 
I give you fair notice that I shall urge the re-enfranchisement of 
those now proscribed for Rebellion, so soon as I shall feel confident 
that this course is consistent with the freedom of the blacks, and the 
unity of the Republic, and that I shall demand a recall of all now 
in exile, only for participating in the Rebellion, whenever the 
country shall have been so thoroughly pacified that its safety will 
not thereby be endangered. And so, gentlemen, hoping that you 
will henceforth comprehond me somewhat better than you have 
done, I remain, Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 
New York, May 23, 1867. 

The Club met at the time appointed, and continued its session 
nearly four hours. Two hundred members were present, and the 
following preamble resolutions were offered, and a motion made 
for their adoption : 

"Whereas, It is declared in the articles of association of the 
Union League Club, that the primary object of the association shall 
be to discountenance and rebuke, by moral and social influences, 
all disloyalty to the Federal government ; and that, to that end, the 
members will use every proper means, in public and private. And 

Whereas, Jefferson Davis has been known by all loyal men, as 
the ruling spirit of that band of conspirators who urged the 
Southern States into rebellion ; as the chief enemy of the Republic, 
not more from the position which he occupied in the Rebel confed- 
eracy, than from the vindictive character of his official acts and 
utterances, during four years of desolating civil war; and as one 
who knew of, if he did not instigate, a treatment of prisoners of 
War unwarranted by any possible circumstances, unparalleled in 



AS A POLITICIAN. 299 

the annals of civilized nations, and which there is abundant evi- 
dence to prove, was deliberately devised for the purpose of 
destroying them. And 

Whereas, Horace Greeley, a member of this Club, has seen 
fit to become a bondsman for this man, whose efforts were, for 
many years, directed to the overthrow of our government ; there- 
fore, 

Resolved, That this Club would do injustice to its past record, 
and to the high principle embodied in its articles of association, 
should it fail to express regret that one of its members had con- 
sented to perform an act of this nature. 

Resolved, That this Club, while ready and anxious to vindicate 
the law of the land, cannot forget that there is also a sense of pub- 
lic decency to which it must defer ; and that no one of its members, 
however eminent his services may have been in the cause of liberty 
and loyalty, can give aid and comfort to Jefferson Davis, without 
offering a cruel insult to the memory of the thousands of our coun- 
trymen who perished, the victims of his ambition. 

Resolved, That the Union League Club disapprove of the act of 
Horace Greeley, in becoming the bondsman of Jefferson Davis. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be published in the newspapers 
of this city, and that a copy of them be sent to Mr. Greeley. 

The vote on the adoption of the resolutions was lost. Then it 
was 

Resolved, That there is nothing in the action of Horace Gree- 
ley, relative to the bailing of Jefferson Davis, calling for pro- 
ceedings in the Club. 

The resolution was carried by a majority vote of the members 
of the committee present. 

The bailing of Davis, and Mr. Greeley's response to the offi- 
cers of the Union League, continued to be a subject for discus- 
sion for some time, and at a later date, Mr. Greeley again re- 
sponded in the Tribune, to some editorial remarks of the Times, 
in the following manne 

MR. GREELEY AND JEFF. DAVIS. 

The Times, under this head, says: 

"It is hard to understand Mr. Greeley. He is opposed to the 



£00 HORACE GREELEY 

imprisonment of Mr. Davis. But, if tried and found guilty, Mr. 
Greeley would be still more opposed to his execution ; for'he ob- 
jects to hanging anybody. The only other alternative is to ' let him 
go.' 

" "We cannot see that it is ' shameful ' to imprison a great criminal, 
9,nd one who not only imprisoned, but tortured, starved and poi- 
soned, tens of thousands of Union soldiers, even if he did not 
sanction the assassination of President Lincoln. 

"There is but one consistent way of explaining Mr. Greeley's 
course, which is, that having invited and encouraged Davis and 
others to go into rebellion, he feels bound not only to go bail for 
them, but to do what he can for their release. 

"But then, while so willing to let the leaders 'go,' why is he so 
hostile to the masses of Rebels, and even to loyal Southern men ? 
Why, if the leaders are forgiven, does he oppose the restoration of 
brotherhood among the people ?" 

NOTES BY THE TRIBUNE. 

If Jefferson Davis is a "great criminal," who has "tortured, 
etarved and poisoned tens of thousands of Union soldiers," why is 
he not tried ? Why has he been kept fifteen months in prison with- 
out even being indicted ? The Times is in the confidence of the 
President and the Secretary of State. Can it not invent some kind 
of reason, pretext, excuse, apology, for the persistent neglect, even 
to indict Davis for the flagrant crimes whereof he is accused above ? 
Why should such a notorious, gigantic criminal, as Davis is 
charged with being, be forbidden for months to communicate with 
his counsel, and when at last they get into court and plead for a 
trial, they be sent away without even a promise that they shall 
soon be brought face to face with a jury? 

We cannot help regarding the imprisonment of Davis, as a swind- 
ling farce and cheat. He has been kept immured so long, that only 
the willfully blind can fail to see that there is no purpose to try him 
with any intent to convict. He is kept in jail awaiting a favorable 
time to let him out. If tried, there will be a quarter of a million 
spent on lawyers and witnesses, with no idea of obtaining a ver- 
dict. Meantime, the seeming lion is constantly assuring the prey 
that he is no real lion, but only Snug, the Joiner — compelled to 
roar and show his teeth to save him from the blood-thirsty Radi- 
cals. We refuse to play the part assigned us in this paltry busi- 
ness. The prisoner is not to be punished — he is not even to be tried 
in earnest — stop the farce and let him go I 

The Times knows better than to ask " why we are so hostile to 
the masses of Rebels." It knows that we are hostile to none of 
them, and that, in time of need, we proved this at our own cost. 



AS A POLITICIAN. 301 

When " the masses of Rebels " set to killing Unionists, as at Mem- 
phis, and more recently at New Orleans, they compel us to resist 
them ; but we much prefer that they behave themselves, so that Ave 
shall not be obliged to do so. 

The Times well knows that we hope and labor for a "restoration 
of brotherhood among the people." That is the end and aim of all 
our efforts. It is a " restoration " which tramples four millions of 
loyal Soiitherners under the feet of domineering, persecuting 
" Rebel masses," that we object to and are striving to defeat. We 
seek a "brotherhood " that will include the whole American peo- 
ple — steadfast Unionists as well as ex-Rebels — all we ask, is that the 
former shall not be put under the feet of the latter. The Times is 
in favor of a " restoration " which makes the Rebels of the South 
supreme over the rights and franchises of the loyal blacks. We 
protest against this, and demand a " reconstruction," which shall 
secure to all, including loyal Southerners, equal rights and equal 
laws. 

Shall we again be accused of " opposing the restoration of broth- 
erhood among the people ?' 

Still later, Mr. Greeley treats the subject in his " Recollec- 
tions of a busy life," as follows : 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

The President of the Southern Confederacy was chosen by a ca- 
pable, resolute aristocracy, with express reference to the arduous 
task directly before him. The choice was deliberate, and apparently 
wise. Mr. Davis was in the mature prime of life ; his natural abil- 
ities were good ; his training varied and thorough. He had been 
educated at West Point, which, with all its faults, I judge the best 
school yet established in our country ; he had served in our little 
army in peace, and as Colonel of volunteers in the Mexican war ; 
returning to civil life, he had been conspicuous in the politics of his 
State and nation; had been elected to the Senate, and there met in 
courteous but earnest encounter, Henry Clay and his compeers ; 
had been four years Secretary of War, under President Pierce ; 
and had, immediately, on his retiring from that post, been returned 
to the Senate, whereof his admirers styled him "the Cicero," and 
whereof he continued a member until — not without manifest reluc- 
tance — he resigned, and returned to Mississippi to cast his future 
fortunes into the seething caldron of secession and disunion. As 
compared with the homely country lawyer, Abraham Lincoln — 



302 HORACE GREELEY 

reared in poverty and obscurity, with none other than a common- 
school education, and precious little at that ; whose familiarity with 
public affairs was confined to three sessions of the Illinois Legisla- 
ture, and a single term in the House of .Representatives — it would 
seem that the advantage of chieftains was largely on the side of the 
Confederacy. 

The contrast between them was striking, but imperfect ; for each 
was thoroughly in earnest, thoroughly persuaded of the justice of 
the cause whereof he stood forth the foremost champion, and sig- 
nally gifted with that quality which, in the successful, is termed 
tenacity, in the luckless, obstinacy. Mr. Lincoln was remarkably 
devoid of that magnetic quality which thrills the masses with en- 
thusiasm, rendering them heedless of sacrifice, and insensible to 
danger ; Mr. Davis was nowise distinguished by its possession. As 
the preacher of a crusade, either of them had many superioivs. But 
Mr. Davis carefully improved — as Mr. Lincoln did not — every op- 
portunity to proclaim his own undoubting faith in the justice of 
his cause, and labored to diffuse that conviction as widely as possi- 
ble. His successive messages and other manifestoes were well cal- 
culated to dispel the doubts, and inflame the zeal of those who re- 
garded him as their chief ; while, apart from his first inaugural, 
and his brief speech at the Gettysburg celebration, Mr. Lincoln 
made little use of his many opportunities to demonstrate the jus- 
tice and necessity of the war for the Union. 

Mr. Davis, after the fortunes of his Confederacy waned, was loud- 
ly accused of favoritism in the allotment of military trusts. He is 
said to have distrusted and undervalued Joseph Johnston, which, 
if so, was a grave error ; for Johnston proved himself an able and 
trustworthy commander, if not a great military genius — never a 
blunderer, and never intoxicated by success, nor paralyzed by dis- 
aster. His displacement in '64 by Hood, as Commander-in-chief of 
the army of Georgia, was proved a mistake ; but it was more de- 
fensible than the appointment of Halleck as General-in-chief of our 
armies, directly after his failure on the Tennessee. Bragg is named 
as first of Davis's pets ; but Bragg seemed to have proved himself 
a good soldier, and to have shown decided capacity at the battle of 
Stone River, though he was ultimately obliged to leave the field 
(and little else,) to Rosecrans. Pemberton was accounted another 
of Davis's overrated favorites; but Pemberton, being of Northern 
birth, was never fully trusted nor fairly judged by his compatriots. 
On a full survey of the ground, I judge that Davis evinced respect- 
able, not brilliant capacities in his stormy and trying presidential 



AS A POLITICIAN. 303 

career, and that his qualifications for the post were equal to, while 
his faults were no greater than Mr. Lincoln's. 

This, however, was not the judgment of his compatriots, who ex- 
travagantly exaggerated his merits, while their cause seemed to 
prosper, and as unjustly magnified his faults and shortcomings from 
the moment wherein their star first visibly waned. They were 
ready to make him Emperor in 1862 ; they regarded him as their 
evil genius in 1865. Having rushed into war in undoubting confi- 
dence that their success was inevitable, they were astounded at 
their defeat, and impelled to believe that their resources had been 
dissipated, and their armies overwhelmed, through mismanage- 
ment. They were like the idolater, who adores his god after a vio- 
tory, but flogs him when smarting under defeat. 

A baleful mischance saved Mr. Davis from the fate of a scape- 
goat. After even he had given up the confederacy as lost, and re- 
alized that he was no longer a President, but a fugitive and outlaw, 
he was surprised and assailed, while making his way through 
Georgia to the Florida coast, with intent to escape from the coun- 
try, by two regiments of Union cavalry, and captured. I am con- 
fident that this would not have occurred, had Mr. Lincoln survived 
— certainly not, if our shrewd and kind-hearted President could 
have prevented it. But his murder had temporarily maddened the 
millions who loved and trusted him ; and his successor, sharing and 
inflaming the popular frenzy, had put forth a Proclamation, charg- 
ing Davis, among others, with conspiracy to procure that murder, 
and offering large rewards for their arrest, as traitors and assassins^ 
Captured in full view of the Proclamation, he might have been 
forthwith tried by a drum-head court-martial, "organized to con- 
vict," found guilty, sentenced, and put to death. 

This, however, was not done ; but he was escorted to Savannah, 
thence shipped to Fortress Monroe, and there closely imprisoned, 
with aggravations of harsh and (it seems) needless indignity. An 
indictment for treason was found against him ; but he remained a 
military prisoner in close jail for nearly two years, before even a 
pretense was made of arraigning him for trial. 

Meantime, public sentiment had become more rational and dis- 
criminating. Davis was still intensely and widely detested as the 
visible embodiment, the responsible head of the Rebellion ; but no 
one of them seriously urged that he be tried by court-martial, and 
shot off-hand ; nor was it certain that a respectable body of officers 
could be found to subserve such an end. To send him before a civil 
tribunal, and allow him a fair trial, was morally certain to result 
in a defeat of the prosecution through disagreement of the jury or 



304 HORACE GREELEY 

otherwise ; for no opponent of the Republican party, whether North 
or South, would agree to find him guilty. And there was grave 
doubt whether he could be legally convicted, now that the charge 
of inciting Wilkes Booth's crime had been tacitly abandoned. Mr. 
Webster had only given clearer expressions to the general Amer- 
ican doctrine, that after a revolt has levied a regular army, and 
fought therewith a pitched battle, its champions, even though ut- 
terly defeated, cannot be tried and convicted as traitors. This may 
be an extreme statement ; but, surely, a rebellion which has for 
years maintained great armies, levied taxes and conscriptions, ne- 
gotiated loans, fought scores of sanguinary battles with alternate 
successes and reverses, and exchanged tens of thousands of prison- 
ers of war, can hardly fail to have achieved thereby the position and 
the rights of a lawful belligerent. Just suppose the case (nowise 
improbable,) of two Commissioners for the exchange of prisoners — 
like Mulford and Oulcl, for example — who had for years, been meet- 
ing to settle formalities, and exchange boat loads of prisoners of 
war, until at length — the power represented by one of them having 
been utterly vanquished and broken down — that one is arrested by 
the victors as a traitor, and the other, directed to prosecute him to 
conviction, and consign him to execution — how would the case be 
regarded by impartial observers in this later half of the nineteenth 
century ? And suppose this trial to take place two years after the 
discomfiture and break down aforesaid — what then ? 

Mr. Andrew Johnson has seen fit to change his views and his 
friends since his unexpected accession to the Presidency, and had 
from an intemperate denouncer of the beaten Rebels as deserving 
severe punishment, become their protector and patron. Jefferson 
Davis, in Fortress Monroe, under his Proclamation aforesaid, was 
an ugly elephant on Johnson's hands ; and thousands were anxious 
that he should remain there. Their view of the matter did not 
impress me as statesmanlike, nor even sagacious. 

The Federal constitution expressly provides that 

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right 
to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and 
district wherein the crime shall have been committed, etc., etc." 

In times of war and grave public peril, constitutions cannot 
always be strictly heeded ; but what national interest required 
that this provision should be persistently, ostentatiously defied ? 

An Irishman, swearing the peace against his three sons for perti- 
naciously assaulting and abusing him, made this proper reserva- 
tion : "And your deponent would ask your honor to deal tenderly 



AS A POLITICIAN. 305 

with his youngest son, Larry, who never struck him when he was 
down." I confess to some fellow-feeling with Larry. 

Mr. George Shea, the attorney of record for the defense in the 
case of the United States against Jeff. Davis indicted for treason, 
is the son of an old friend, and I have known and liked him from 
infancy. After it had become evident that his client had no imme- 
diate prospect of trial, if any prospect at all, Mr. Shea became 
anxious that said client be liberated on bail. Consulting me as to 
the feasibility of procuring some names to be proffered as bonds- 
men of persons who had conspicuously opposed the Rebellion and 
all the grave errors which incited it. I suggested two eminent 
Unionists who, I presume, would cheerfully consent to stand as 
security, that the accused would not run away to avoid the trial 
he had long but unsuccessfully invoked. I added, after reflection, 
" If my name should be found necessary, you may use that." He 
thanked me, and said he should proffer it only in case the others 
abundantly at his command would not answer without it. 
Months passed before I was apprised, by a telegram from Wash- 
ington, that my name was needed, when I went down and prof- 
fered it. And when, at length the prisoner was brought before 
the United States District Court at Richmond, I was there, by 
invitation, and signed the bond in due form. 

I suppose this would have excited some hubbub at any rate ; 
but the actual tumult was gravely aggravated by gross misstate- 
ments. It was widely asserted that the object of giving bail was 
to screen the accused from trial — in other words, to enable him to 
run away — when nothing like this was ever imagined by those 
' concerned. The prisoner, through his counsel, had assiduously 
sought a trial, while the prosecution was not ready, because (as 
Judge Underwood was obliged to testify before a committee of 
Congress) no conviction was possible, except by packing a jury. 
The words " straw bail " were used in this connection ; when one 
of the sureties is worth several millions of dollars, and the poorest 
of them is abundantly good for the sum of $5,000, in which he is 
"held and firmly bound" to produce the body of Jefferson Davis 
whenever the plaintiff shall be ready to try him. If he only would 
run away, I know that very many people would be much obliged 
to him ; but he won't. 

It was telegraphed all over the North that I had a very affection- 
ate meeting and greeting with the prisoner when he had been 
bailed ; when in fact I had never before spoken nor written to him 
any message whatever, and did not know him, even by sight, when 
he entered the court-room. After the bond was signed, one of his 
20 



806 HORACE GREELEY 

counsel asked me if I had any objection to being introduced to Mr. 
Davis, and I replied that I had none ; whereupon we were intro- 
duced, and simply greeted each other. I made, at the request of a 
friend, a brief call on his wife that evening, as they were leaving 
for Canada ; and there our intercourse ended, probably forever. 

When the impeachment of President Johnson was fully resolved 
on, and there was for some weeks a fair prospect that Mr. Wade 
would soon be President, with a cabinet of like Radical faith, I 
suggested to some of the prospective President's next friends that 
I had Jefferson Davis still on my hands, and that, if he were con- 
sidered a handy thing to have in the house, I might turn him over 
to the new administration for trial at an hour's notice. The sug- 
gestion evoked no enthusiasm, and I was not encouraged to 
press it. 

I trust no one will imagine that I have made this statement with 
any purpose of self-vindication. To all who have civilly accosted 
me on the subject, I trust I have given civil if not satisfactory 
answers ; while most of those who have seen fit to assail me re- 
specting it, I have treated with silent scorn. I believe no one has 
yet succeeded in inventing an unworthy motive for my act that 
could impose on the credulity of a child, or even of my bitterest 
enemy. I was quite aware that what I did would be so repre- 
sented as to alieniate for a season some valued friends, and set 
against me the great mass of those who know little and think less ; 
thousands even of those who rejoiced over Davis's release, never- 
theless, joining full-voiced, in the howl against me. I knew 
that I should outlive the hunt, and could afford to smile at the 
pack, even when its cry was loudest. So I went quietly on my . 
way, and in due time the storm gave place to a calm. And now, 
if there is a man on earth who wishes Jefferson Davis were back 
in his cell, awaiting, in the fourth year of his detention, the trial 
denied him in the three preceding, he is at liberty to denounce me 
for my course, in the assurance that he can by no means awake a 
regret or provoke a reply. 

Mr. Greeley's industry, good judgment and sagacity of mind, 
have always made him an able and efficient politician of the high- 
est order. He has ever been fearless and bold to push his politi- 
cal principles, and urge their importance and adoption. 

Perhaps no man in the country has worked with such promi- 
nence and influence, through so many political campaigns, as Mr. 
Greeley. Having been actively before the people as an editor of 



AS A POLITICIAN. 307 

the most influential political paper of the country, for nearly forty 
years of constant labor, he has passed through many hard fought 
national and state campaigns, and acquitted himself with great 
honor to his party, and won the esteem of his political opponents. 

Mr. Greeley regards the campaign of 1844, as the one in 
which he worked harder than during any other term of his life. 
Henry Clay was his ideal of a statesman ; the man upon whom he 
has expended the greater portion of his " hero worship," and con- 
sequently, the man for whose advancement to the chief office of 
the nation, he worked hardest. Harrison's campaign also fur- 
nished another busy season for him. 

During the long and active labors of Mr. Greeley, in public 
and political life, he has rarely been an office-holder. Being of 
that nature that had but little cheek, hard-faced and unscrupulous 
politicians always crowded in ahead of him, and gathered the 
spoils of office for themselves, and left him to continue the politi- 
cal fighting for new victories. 

Nor was he ever an " office seeker." It is true, that during his 
early struggles to get the Tribune on a firm financial basis, and 
before that end was accomplished, he believed that the victories of 
the Whig party justly entitled him to some share in the spoils of of- 
fice, whereby to afford some remuneration for the hard and endur- 
ing service rendered. But even in those days, men of greater 
greed, were more vigilant than he, and divided among themselves 
the spoils of the vanquished. When this treatment had been re- 
peated from time to time, by co-laborers in the same political in- 
terest, Mr. Greeley decided that he would not endure it any 
longer, and thereupon addressed the following letter to Governor 
Seward, which will forever stand as a monument of worth, to an 
honest politician : 

HORACE GREELEY TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

New York, Saturday Eve., Nov. 11, 1854. 
Governor Seward : — The election is over, and its result suffi- 
ciently ascertained. It seems to me a fitting time to announce to 
you the dissolution of the political firm of Seward, Weed, and 



308 HORACE GREELEY 

Greeley, by the withdrawal of the junior partner; and with- 
drawal to take effect on the morning after the first Tuesday in 
February next. [The day on which the re-election of Mr. Seward 
to the Senate, was expected to occur, and on which it did occur, 
with the Tribune's assent and support. — J. P.] 

And, as it may seem a great presumption in me to assume that 
any such firm exists, especially since the public was advised rather 
moreithan a year ago, by an editorial rescript in the evening Jour- 
nal, formally reading me out of the Whig party; that I was 
esteemed no longer either useful or ornamental in the concern, you 
will, I am sure, indulge me in some reminiscences which seem to be- 
fit the occasion. 

I was a poor young printer and editor of a literary journal — a 
very active and bitter Whig in a small way, but not seeking to he 
known out of my own ward committee — when, after the great po- 
litical revulsion of 1837, I was one day called to the City Hotel, 
where two strangers introduced themselves as Thurlow Weed and 
Lewis Benedict, of Albany. They told me that a cheap campaign 
paper of a peculiar stamp, at Albany, had been resolved on, and 
that I had heen selected to edit it. The announcement might well 
be deemed flattering by one who had never even sought the notice 
of the great, and who was not known as a partisan writer, and I 
eagerly embraced their proposals. 

They asked me to fix my salary for the year ; I named $1,000, 
which they agreed to, and I did the work required to the best of 
my ability. It was work that made no figure and created no sen- 
sation ; but I loved it, and I did it well. 

When it was done, you were Governor, dispensing offices worth 
.$3,000 to $20,000 per year, to your friends and compatriots, and I 
returned to my garret and my crust, and my desperate battle with 
pecuniary obligations heaped upon me by bad partners in business, 
and the disastrous events of 1837. 

I believe it did not then occur to me, that some one of these 
abundant places might have been offered to me, without injustice ; 
I now think it should have occurred to you. If it did occur to me, 
I was not the man to ask you for it. I think that should not have 
been necessary. I only remember that no friend at Albany in- 
quired as to my pecuniary circumstances ; that your friend, (but 
not mine,) Robert C. Wetmore, was one of the chief dispensers of 
your patronage here ; and that such devoted compatriots as A. H. 
Wills and John Hooks, were lifted by you out of pauperism into in- 
dependence, as I am glad I was not. And yet, an inquiry from 



- AS A POLITICIAN. 309 

you as to my needs and means at that time, would have been time- 
ly, and held ever in grateful remembrance. 

In the Harrison campaign of 1840, I was again designated to edit 
a campaign paper. I published it, as well, and ought to have made 
something by it, in spite of its extremely low price. My extreme 
poverty was the main reason why I did not. It compelled me to 
hire press work, mailing, etc., done by the job, and high charges 
for extra work, nearly ate me up. At the close, I was still without 
property, and in debt, but this paper had rather improved my po- 
sition. 

Now came the great scramble of the swell mob of coon minstrels 
and cider-suckers, at "Washington — I never being counted in. Sev- 
eral regiments of them went on from this city ; but no one of the 
whole crowd — though I say it, who should not — had done so much 
toward Gen. Harrison's nomination and election, as yours respect- 
fully. I asked nothing, expected nothing; but you Governor 
Seward, ought to have asked that I be postmaster of New York. 
Your asking would have been in v ain, but it would have been an 
act of grace neither wasted nor undeserved. 

I soon after started the Tribune, because I was urged to do so by 
certain of your friends, and because such a paper was needed here. 
I was promised certain pecuniary aid in so doing ; it might have 
been given me without cost or risk to any one. All I ever had was 
a loan by piecemeal, of $1,000 from James Coggeshall — God bless 
his honored memory ! I did not ask for this, and I think it is the 
one sole case in which I ever received a pecuniary favor from a 
political associate. I am very thankful that he did not die till it 
was fully repaid. 

And let me here honor one grateful recollection : "When the 
"Whig party, under your rule, had offices to give, my name was 
never thought of; but when, in 1842-43, we were hopelessly out of 
power, I was honored with the party nomination for State printer. 
When we came again to have a State printer to elect as well as 
nominate, the place went to "Weed, as it ought. Yet, it is worth 
something to know that there was once a time when it was not 
deemed too great a sacrifice to recognize me as belonging to your 
household. If a new office had not since been created on purpose 
to give its valuable patronage to H. J. Raymond, and enable St. 
John to show forth his Times as the organ of the Whig State ad- 
ministration, I should have been still more grateful. 

In 1848, your star again rose, and my warmest hopes were real- 
ized in your election to the Senate. I was no longer needy, and 
had no more claim than desire to be recognized by General Taylor. 



310 HOKACE GREELEY 

I think I had some claim to forbearance from yon. What I received 
thereupon, was a most humiliating lecture, in the shape of a decis- 
ion in the libel case of Redfield and Pringle, and an obligation to 
publish it in my own and the other journal of our supposed lirm. 
I thought, and still think, this lecture needlessly cruel and mortify- 
ing. The plaintiffs, after using my columns to the extent of their 
needs or desires, stopped writing, and called on me for the name of 
their assailant. I proffered it to them — a thoroughly responsible 
name. They refused to accept it, unless it should prove to be one 
of the four or five men in Batavia ! when they had known from the 
first who it was, and that it was neither of them. They would not 
accept that which they had demanded ; they sued me instead, for 
money, and money you were at liberty to give them to your heart's 
content. I do not think you were at liberty to humiliate me in the 
eyes of my own and your (if I am not mistaken, this judgment is 
the only speech, letter, or document, addressed to the public, in 
which you ever recognized my existence. I hope I may not go 
down to posterity as embalmed therein) public, as you did. I 
think you exalted your own judicial sternness and fearlessness un- 
duly at my expense. I think you had a better occasion for the dis- 
play of those qualities, when Webb threw himself untimely upon 
you for a pardon, which he had done all a man could do to demerit. 
(His paper is paying you for it now.) 

I have publicly set forth my view of your and our duty, with re- 
spect to fusion, Nebraska, and party designations. I will not repeat 
any of that. I have referred also to Weed's reading me out of the 
Whig party ; my crime being, in this as in some other things, that 
of doing to-day, what more politic persons will not be ready to do 
till to-morrow. 

Let me speak of the late canvass : I was once sent to Congress 
for ninety days, merely to enable Jim Brooks to secure a seat 
therein for four years. I think I never hinted to any human being 
that I would have liked to be put forward for any place. But James 
W. White (you hardly know how good and true a man he is,) 
started my name for Congress, and Brook's packed delegation, as 
though I could help him through; so I was put on behind him. 

But this last spring, after the Nebraska question had created a 
new state of things at the North, one or two personal friends, of no 
political consideration, suggested my name as a candidate for Gov- 
ernor, and I did not discourage them. 

Soon, the persons who were afterward mainly instrumental in 
nominating Clark, came about me, and asked if I could secure the 
know-nothing vote. 



AS A POLITICIAN. 311 

I told them I neither could, nor would touch it ; on the contrary, 
I loathed and repelled it. Thereupon they turned upon Clark. 

I said nothing' ; did nothing. A hundred people asked me who 
should he run for Governor. I sometimes indicated Patterson ; I 
never hinted at my own name. But hy and by, Weed came down 
and called me to him, to tell me why he could not support me for 
Governor. [I had never asked, nor counted on his support.] 

I am sure Weed did not mean to humiliate me ; hut he did it. 
The upshot of his discourse, (very cautiously stated,) was this : 

* If I were a candidate^for Governor, I should beat, not myself on- 
ly, biu you." 

Perhaps that was true. But as I had in no manner solicited his 
or your support,! thought this might have been said to my friends, 
rather than to me. 

I suspect it is true that I could not have been elected Governor, 
as a Whig. But had he and you been favorable, there ivould have 
been a party in the State, 'ere this, which could and would have 
elected me to any post, without infusing itself, or endangering your 
re-election. 

It was in vain that I urged, that I had in no manner asked a nom- 
ination. At length I was nettled by his language — well intended, 
but very cutting as addressed by him to me — to say, in substance, 
" Well, then make Patterson Governor, and try my name for Lieu- 
tenant." 

To lose this place is a matter of no importance ; and we can see 
whether I am really so odious. 

I should have hated to serve as Lieutenant-Governor, but I should 
have gloried in running for the post. I want to have my enemies 
all upon me at once ; I am tired of fighting them piecemeal. And 
though I should have been beaten in the canvass, I know that my 
running would have helped the ticket, and helped my paper. 

It was thought best to let the matter take another course. No 
other name could have been put on the ticket so bitterly humbling 
to me, as that which was selected. The nomination was given to 
Raymond ; the fight left to me. 

And, Governor Seward, I have made it, though it be conceited 
in me to say so. 

What little fight there has been, I have stirred up. Even Weed 
has not been (I speak of his paper,) hearty in this contest, while 
the journal of the Whig Lieutenant-Governor has taken care of its 
own interests, and let the canvass take care of itself, as it early de- 
clared it would do. 

That journal has (because of its milk-and-water course,) some 



812 HORACE GREELEY 

twenty thousand subscribers in this city and its suburbs, and, of 
these twenty thousand, I venture to say, more voted for Ullmann 
and Scroggs, than for Clark and Raymond. The Tribune (also be- 
cause of its character,) has but eight thousand subscribers within 
the same radius, and, I venture to say, that of its habitual readers, 
nine-tenths voted for Clark and Raymond — very few for Ullmann 
and Scroggs. 

I had to bear the brunt of the contest, and take a terrible respon- 
sibility in order to prevent the Whigs uniting upon James W. Bar- 
ker, in order to defeat Fernando Wood. Had Barker been elected 
here, neither you nor I could walk these streets without being hoot- 
ed, and know-nothingism would have swept like a prairie-fire. I 
stopped Barker's election at the cost of incurring the deadliest en- 
mity of the defeated gang ; and I have been rebuked for it by the 
Lieutenant-Governor's paper. 

At the critical moment, he came out against John Wheeler, in 
fa"Vor of Charles H. Marshall, (who would have been your deadli- 
est enemy in the House,) and even your Colonel-General's paper, 
which was even with me in insisting that Wheeler should be re- 
turned, wheeled about at the last moment, and went in for Mar- 
shall, — the Tribune alone, clinging to Wheeler till the last. 

I rejoice that they who turned so suddenly, were not able to 
turn all their readers. 

Governor Seward, I know that some of your most cherished 
friends think me a great obstacle to your advancement ; that John 
Schoolcraft, for one, insists that you and Weed shall not be identi- 
fied with me. I trust, after a time, you will not be. I trust I shall 
never be found in opposition to you ; I have no future wish, but 
glide out of the newspaper world as quietly and as speedily as pos- 
sible, to join my family in Europe, and, if possible, stay there quite 
a time, — long enough to cool my fevered brain, and renovate my 
overtasked energies. All I ask is, that we shall be counted even on 
the morning after the first Tuesday in February, as aforesaid, and 
that I may thereafter take such course as seems best, without 
reference to the past. 

You have done me acts of valued kindness in the line of your 
profession : let me close with the assurance, that these will ever 
be gratefully remembered by Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Present. 

The publication of this letter at once called out special discus- 
sion in the State of New York, and more particularly from Thur- 



AS A POLITICIAN. 313 

low Weed, who was Governor Seward's devoted friend. Mr. 
Greeley, in commenting upon the discussions about the letter, 
took occasion to advise young men against pinning their faith to 
public men, in the belief that they were infallible. His words 
ought to be impressed upon the memory of every young man in 
the country. They are as follows : 

A single word to the young and ardent politicians. The moral I 
would inculcate, is a trite one, hut none the less important. It is 
summed up in the scriptural injunction, "Put not your trust in 
princes." Men, even the hest, are frail and mutable, while prin- 
ciple is sure and eternal. Be no man's man, but the truth's, and 
your country's. You will be sorely tempted at times to take this 
or that great name for your oracle and guide. It is easy and pleas- 
ant to learn to follow, and to trust ; but it is safer and wiser to 
look even through your own eyes — to tread your own path — to trust 
implicitly in God alone. The atmosphere is a little warmer inside 
some great man's castle, but the free air of heaven is ever so much 
purer and more bracing. 

Since the Tribune has been on a firm financial basis, and re- 
munerative to its proprietors, Mr. Greeley has cared but little about 
office-holding. In 1848 he was elected to Congress, to fill a va- 
cancy. When his election was ascertained, he addressed the 
following card to his constituents : 

TO THE ELECTORS OF THE VTTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 

The undersigned, late a candidate for Congress, respectfully re- 
turns his thanks — first, to his political opponents for the uniform 
kindness and consideration with which he was treated by them 
throughout the canvass, and the unsolicited suffrages with which 
he was honored by many of them ; secondly, to the great mass of 
his political brethren, for the ardent, enthusiastic and effective 
support which they rendered him ; and, lastly, to that small portion 
of the Whig electors who saw fit to withhold from him their votes, 
thereby nearly or quite neutralizing the support he received from 
the opposite party. Claiming for himself the right to vote for or 
against any candidate of his party as his own sense of right and 
duty shall dictate, he very freely accords to all others the same 
liberty, without offense or inquisition. 

During the late canvass I have not according to my best recol- 



314 HORACE GREELEY 

lection, spoken of myself, and have not replied in any way to any 
sort of attack or imputation. I have in no manner sought to dep- 
recate the objections, nor to soothe the terrors of that large and 
most influential class who deem my advocacy of Land Reform and 
Social Re-organization, synonymous with infidelity and system- 
atic robbery. To have enterei upon explanations or vindica- 
tions of my views on these subjects in the crisis of a great national 
struggle, which taxed every energy, and demanded every thought, 
comported neither with my leisure nor my inclination. 

Neither have I seen fit at any time to justify nor allude to my 
participation in the efforts made here last summer to aid the peo- 
ple of Ireland in their anticipated struggle for liberty and independ- 
ence. I shall not do so now. What I did then in behalf of the 
Irish millions, I stand ready to do again, so far as my means will 
permit, when a similar opportunity, with a light prospect of suc- 
cess, is presented — and not for them only, but for any equally op- 
pressed and suffering people on the face of the earth. If any " ex- 
tortion and plunder " were contrived and perpetrated in the meet- 
ings for Ireland at Vauxhall last season, I am wholly unconscious 
of it, though I ought to be as well informed as to the alleged " ex- 
tortion and plunder " as most others, whether my information 
were obtained in the character of conspirator or that of victim. I 
feel impelled, however, by the expressions employed in Mr. 
Brook's card, to state that I have found nothing like an inclination 
to "extortion and plunder" in the councils of the leading friends of 
Ireland in this city, and nothing like a suspicion of such baseness 
among the thousands who sustained and cheered them in their 
efforts. All the suspicions and imputations to which those have 
been subjected, who freely gave their money and their exertions in 
aid of the generous, though ineffectual effort for Ireland's libera- 
tion, have originated with those who never gave that cause a 
pi'ayer or a shilling, and have not yet traveled beyond them. 

Respectfully, 

Horace Greeley. 

New York, Nov. 8, 1848. 

Mr. Greeley served three months in Congress, and devoted 
most of his time to the interest of Reform and Enconomy in the 
government. 

When his term expired he published the following address to 
his constituents : 



AS A POLITICIAN. * 815 

THE LATE SESSION OF CONGRESS 

To the Electors of the 6ih Congressional District, New York : 

Fellow Citizens : — Chosen by your favor to a seat in Con- 
gress through its brief of some doings, which may well seem to re- 
quire further explanation, it is not to be denied nor disguised 
that the session has been a failure, not only in view of the good it 
meditated, but judged solely with reference to what it might have 
done. I am aware that so little is usually accomplished at a short 
session — especially one preceding an inauguration — that the people 
have come to expect little or nothing of such a session beyond the 
passage of the annual approbation bills. This, however, cannot 
excuse the wrong, though it may soften the condemnation. There 
was no good reason for the failure of several important and benefi- 
cent measures which were not matural into laws at the late ses- 
sion — no reason at all but the incompetency or unfaithfulness of a 
large portion of those clothed with the powei - , and charged with 
the duty of enacting them. I do not choose to bear my equal por- 
tion of the blame, for I am confident I have not deserved it. Con- 
sider what I shall here, with all possible conciseness, submit to 
your measure, and test it by what you already know or may still 
glean from other sources of the doings, misdoings and non-doings 
of this Congress, and render an impartial judgment. I shall for 
the sake of clearness, glance at the principal topics of the session 
under their several heads, as follows: 

1. Postage Reform — The failure to effect any revision of our 
present postage charges is one of the great wrongs of the session. 
The iniquity of charging one man forty cents per ounce, or $6 40 
per pound, for carrying mailed matter on an unbroken line of rail- 
road and steamboat communications from Portland, Me., or 
Charleston, S. C, to Washington, while another receives au un- 
limited number of pounds by the same mail on which nothing is 
charged, is one of the most glaring of any still subsisting under 
our Republican rule. What I contend for is not strictly cheap 
postage any more than dear postage — it is simply just postage. 
Make everything which passes through the mails pay its just pro- 
portion of the total expense of mail service, and charge the lowest 
rates which will supply the possible mail system. To talk of re- 
ducing postage without abolishing the Franking Privilege is like 
proposing to double expenditures, yet diminish taxation. That 
Franking Privilege is an aristocratic and blighting monopoly, 
which has for many years subjected those who pay their own pos- 
tage to unjust and heavy burdens. Many a mercantile house in 



316 HORACE GREELEY 

this city has already heen taxed thousands of dollars to uphold 
this oppressive monopoly, and is still paying hundreds yearly. 
But for this, who could have imagined such an exorbitant charge 
as forty cents per quarter ounce letter, or at the rate of $25 60 per 
pound, for conveying letters by sea from this port to San Fran- 
cisco ? And this is only one of its oppressions. The Franking 
Privilege ought to be indicted and punished for obstructing the 
transportation of the mails — a flagrant offense under our laws. 
On or before the first of December the members of Congress 
gather at Washington, finding often a large quantity of documents 
printed, enveloped and duly apportioned to each, and these they 
immediately commence franking home to their constituents in 
packages often weighing two and even three pounds. These get 
started in the mails just as the rivers are freezing up, and when 
the roads thuoughout the greater part of the Union are almost im- 
passible. The consequence is, that at the termination of railroad 
conveyance in almost every direction from "Washington, the over- 
loaded mail-bags are in good part thrown aside from absolute ina- 
bility on the part of the stage-coaches thence employed, to carry 
them forward to their destinations. Thus twenty-one hundred 
pounds lay for some time last winter at the temporary terminus 
of the Michigan Railroad at Niles, while additional mail bags, 
which had been started from Niles, but brought to a halt in one or 
another of the fathomless sloughs of Indiana, Illinois and Wiscon- 
sin, encumbered the wayside bar-rooms. Thus the letters and 
newspapers which paid postage, and which were anxiously 
awaited by those entitled to receive them, were kept back ; pub- 
lishers, debtors and correspondents, were execrated for neglect and 
bad faith, while members of the Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin 
Legislatures, (each having a U. S. Senator to elect,) were amply 
plied with public documents — one of them receiving twenty-live 
pounds of them by a single mail, on which he paid nothing, 
though if you had sent the same amount of mailed matter, the 
charge thereon would have been $160. He probably never read 
ten pages of them ; they were not sent to be read, but to gratify 
his vanity and secure his vote for Senator. If those who pay for 
carrying the mails are satisfied to let this go on and grow worse 
from year to year — as all abuses naturally tend to — their taste 
must be peculiar, indeed, if it were only to secure regularity in 
the reception of mails. I would strenuously insist on the aboli- 
tion of the Franking Privilege. But when I see that its existence 
also upholds and renders necessary rates of postage twice as high 
as they otherwise need be (for the aggregate weight of franked 



AS A POLITICIAN. 317 

documents and letters must be fully equal to that of the letter- 
mails on which postage is paid, while the average distance over 
which they are conveyed must be greater) ; and while I see that at 
least one hundred thousand dollars are annually paid from the 
treasury for printing and enveloping extra copies of documents 
winch would never be ordered if those who received them were 
subjected to postage, I am puzzled to account for the election and 
re-election to Congress of men who uphold the Franking Privi- 
lege. 

I did all in my power to obtain action on this subject — I strug- 
gled for cheap postage — not by making speeches, but by refraining 
therefrom, and earnestly, anxiously pressing forward the business 
which had precedence of this. In view of this, I uniformly re- 
sisted early adjournments and adjournments over, no matter on 
which specious pretext ; I rarely or never failed to rise in support 
of the previous question, and always voted for the earliest hour 
proposed for terminating a debate. It was not possible to put this 
ahead of the Appropriation and Territorial bills, our only hope was 
to finish them in season to pass a Postage Reform bills, and this 
hope, was among the last to relinquish. Could we have obtained 
one clear day for postage reduction, I think the bill, though 
strongly opposed, would have been driven through the com- 
mittee of the whole, and I should have had the satisfaction I dearly 
coveted, of recording my yea on its jinal passage. That pleasure 
will now accrue to more fortunate, perhaps more efficient, but cer- 
tainly not one more zealous advocate of Postage Reform than I 
have been. 

2. Land Reform — Though I had no opportunity of making a 
speech on this subject either, I ardently hoped and endeavored to 
bring the House to consider, or at least to vote upon this proposi- 
tion — that man, having by nature a right to live — being in fact 
commanded to live and forbidden to die of his own voluntary 
motion, has necessarily a right to live somewhere, and to the un- 
purchased use of his needful allotment of the God-created elements 
of this globe, out of which to procure and fashion his own subsis- 
tence. On the second or third day of the session, I gave notice of 
and soon after introduced a bill to discourage speculation in the 
Public Lands, and to secure homes thereon to actual " Settlers and 
Cultivators," which in the mildest and least offensive form, averted 
this principal with regard to the Public Lands of the United 
States. It forbade future purchases on speculation at any price 
below $5 per acre, while inviting any man to purchase for his own 
improvement and use at $1 25 per acre, and invited every landless 



318 HORACE GREELEY 

man to make choice of one hundred and sixty acres, on which he 
should be entitled by mere settlement to a seven years' pre-emp- 
tion, and thereafter to a right of perpetual occupancy (if the head 
of a family) to one-half thereof without payment, buying- the other 
half at the minimum price, or releasing it to be settled upon by 
some i-elative or friend as he should see fit. The House found no 
time to act upon this bill, and refused me even the yeas and nays 
on rejecting it. Had 1 been more tender to certain foibles, this 
would probably have been otherwise. I do not complain as of a 
personal grievance, for I can far better await a more just apprecia- 
tion of this subject than can those who need land, and must an- 
nually sacrifice half their scanty earnings for the want of it. 

I am puzzled by the apathy of the directors of opinion around me 
on this subject of Land Reform. The spires of our city churches 
overshadow a population of half a million, not one fifth of whom 
are owners of the roofs that cover them ; not one-tenth of whom 
have legal access to the soil from which their subsistence must be 
drawn. Nine-tenths depend for a livlihood on the chance that one 
or more will at all times be ready to hire them or buy of them. 
This expectation is subject to continual disappointments, hence 
widespread bankruptcy, destitution, beggary. In defiance of the 
notorious superabundance of our population, the tides of Ameri- 
can and European adventure, here dash against each other, and 
thousands who are urged hither by sanguine visions of sudden 
wealth, soon awoke to the bleak reality of a lack of shelter for their 
heads. Here vice and misery, destitution and crime, prodigality 
and want, re-act upon and stimulate each other. Here rents and 
pauperism are expanding with fearful rapidity ; and it seems to 
me so plain that our land laws and the monopoly they tend to cre- 
ate — our current mode of treating the God-created earth as men 
among the direct occasions of the immense and deplorable despari- 
ties of fortune and deficiencies of subsistence witnessed around us, 
that I cannot see how others who open their eyes fail to see it too, 
and to strive with me for its correction ; nor can I see how a mer- 
cantile community like this, should fail to l-ealize its double inter- 
est in every measure tending to facilitate the rapid and compact 
settlement of the public lands. Such settlement, while it tends to 
diminish our paupers, tends likewise to increase our customers. 
Every smoke that rises from a newly occupied quarter-section 
in the great West, marks the accession of a new customer to the 
counting-rooms and warehouses of New York ; and the less the 
tribute imposed on him by land speculation and monopoly, the 
greater will be his ability to purchase the wares and fabrics of 



AS A POLITICIAN. 319 

which he is abundantly in need. On the other hand, every thou- 
sand acres of unimproved soil, held up for speculative prices, is a 
blank on the map of our city's area of commercial interchanges ; 
an impediment to the farther prosecution of canals and railroads ; 
a region of waste and usclessncss. I cannot believe that the mer- 
cantile influence of our city will much longer be hostile, or even in- 
different, to some comprehensive and thorough measure of Land 
Reform, but its most vigorous and efficient advocate. 

3. The Territories — Slavery — Among the most important, obvi- 
ous and pressing of the duties devolving on Congress at this ses- 
sion, was that of organizing the Territories just acquired from Mex- 
ico, so as to secure to their inhabitants the blessings of law and or- 
der, of liberty and public security. Nearly all admitted this in the 
abstract : yet nothing was, in fact, accomplished. The House perfect- 
ed and adopted two separate propositions, for the organization of 
California; the Senate rejecting both, presented one counter-prop- 
osition of its own, which the House would not accept. Thus, the 
matter goes over to another Congress ; the sole substantial differ- 
ence between them, being this : the House insisted on such an or- 
ganization as would, in effect, exclude slavery therefrom, while the 
Senate would consent to no such exclusion. There the matter 
rests. I, certainly, could not consent to such a measure as the Sen- 
ate's, though my grounds of objection were not precisely set forth 
in any of the set speeches against it. I could have foregone the ex- 
press application of the Wilmot Proviso, so called, in the clear con- 
viction that its object woidd otherwise be effected, had the Sen- 
ate's amendment provided fairly and fully for the organization of 
the new Territories in every other respect. I said openly to South- 
ern members who rallied against the proviso: "I, for one, will 
meet you fully half way. Aid us to enact a law securing to New 
Mexico, her ancient and rightful boundaries — aid us to protect and 
defend her against the impudent claim of Texas, to absorb and 
subjugate her— secure to the real people of New Mexico and Cali- 
fornia, the right to decide conclusively, whether they shall tolerate 
slavery or not, and I will vote to organize these Territories without 
a proviso against slavery." I made this offer with some reluctance, 
but, if accepted, I should have faitli fully complied with its stipu- 
lations. For, of the two perils which threaten these Territories — 
that of the planting of slavery beyond the Rio Grande, and that of 
its naturalization on this side, through the absorption of New Mex- 
ico by Texas — I deem the latter far more imminent and formidable. 
To provide a safeguard against this, I was willing to brave the less- 
er risk of the other. But the opportunity was not offered me. 



320 HORACE GREELEY 

Strongly committed by my convictions, and my past course to the 
cause of Free Soil, I was yet solicitous not to make that cause a 
source of peril to the Union, or of needless embarrassment to those 
"whom the people have just called to wield the executive power of 
the nation. I did not, at any time, forget that I was chosen as a 
friend of the incoming administration, and mainly by the votes of 
its friends. If I could not indulge expectations as fond, or hopes as 
sanguine as theirs, I nevertheless felt bound not to do anything cal- 
culated to blast those hopes, or disappoint those expectations. If 
there were any members of either House who sought to make this 
question of slavery in the territories a cause of irritation and aliena- 
tion between the North and the South, and especially between the 
Whigs of the opposite sections, I was not one of them. If any de- 
sired to break up the session in a tumult, or have the general Ap- 
propriation bill fail through disagreement, thus imposing on the 
new administration the necessity of calling an extra session of Con- 
gress, I was not of them. I instituted no insulting comparisons, 
made no irritating speeches, but was content to perform my duty 
to freedom, as offensively as possible, and in such manner as to 
give no avoidable offense to the champion of slavery. I think the 
event demonstrated the wisdom of this course. 

4. The District Slave-Trade — But while I shunned and deplored 
any needless agitation respecting slavery, and especially condemn- 
ed the interminable speech-making on this theme, to which a full 
half of the session was absurdly and perniciously devoted. I none 
the less ardently supported every effort to purify the national me- 
tropolis from the abominations of the domestic Slave-Trade. I sus- 
tained Mr. Lott's resolution, (preamble and all,) instructing the 
district committee to report a bill abolishing the infamous traffic ; 
I resisted all attempts to reconsider, amend and reject that resolu- 
tion ; and when a bill was subsequently reported, in accordance 
with the memorial of the corporate authorities of "Washington, I 
did all in my power to reach and pass it, after it had slipped be- 
yond the immediate reach of the House. That bill ought to have 
been passed (in the House at least,) — would have been if its pro- 
fessed friends had been faithful and resolute. It could have been, 
in spite of the desperate efforts of its adversaries, led by the ablest 
and most unscrupulous parliamentary tactician I ever met, had its 
friends but been willing to sit till five o'clock of two days on the 
last week, but one of the session — merely refraining from talk, sus- 
taining the previous question at every opportunity, and pressing 
straight ahead through the intermediate business on the speaker's 
table, till they had reached and passed this bill. 



AS A POLITICIAN. 321 

But some of those who loved their dinners, and the chance ot a 
foreign mission or so rather more, and the hill was not reached 
then, nor until the last day of the session, when to take it up would 
have heen simply to throw the Appropriation hills overboard. It 
was therefore, not passed, very properly ; the House going- instead 
into committee, on one of the Appropriation bills returned from 
the Senate, with amendments : so the District Slave-Trade bill 
stands over, at the head of the bills remaining on the Speaker's ta- 
ble, when the session closed. It may be revived, and passed at the 
next session, by seasonable forecast and sturdy resolution. 

5. Retrenchment and Reform — I made several attempts to cut 
down and keep down appropriations and expenditures under the 
various heads of army and navy, judiciary, mileage and contingen- 
cies of Congress, &c, &c, and though not often successful in cut- 
ting down, I think my efforts were not without effect in pi-event- 
ing further extravagance. Thus, my attempt to stop the promo- 
tion of officers in the navy lip to army grade — that of captain for 
example — in which there shall be already more officers than there 
is employment for, was defeated; but the facts adduced in support 
of it, showing that not two-thirds of the officers receiving large 
pay in some grades, were employed, were directly in point, when 
a counter-proposition, repealing the existing limit to promotions, 
and allowing the Secretary of the navy to make post-captains of all 
the midshipmen if he pleases, was made and defeated. So on other 
points. In all this matter of public economy, so constant is the 
pressure, so specious and infinite the reasons for new offices, larger 
allowances, higher salaries, that it is idle to hope to keep down ex- 
penditures, by merely acting on the defensive. He was right, who 
said — " The best mode of avoiding danger is, by meeting it half- 
way." He who shall have the Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation 
bill, with its history before him, so as to mark what items of ad- 
ditional expenditure were proposed, and defeated in the House ; 
what amount, and what kinds of new items were engrafted there- 
on, by the Senate — how many, and what of these were stricken off 
on the return of the bill to the House, (though they ultimately 
slipped through in the struggle between the two Houses, on the 
Walker amendment,) will be prepared to judge whether the efforts 
for retrenchment in the House were made wholly in vain. 

I hope no one will deem me unconscious of the difference between 
a blind parsimony, and a discerning economy. I never hesitated 
to vote heartily the full sums required for great national pm-poses ; 
for Mexican indemnity, Mexican claims, light-houses, &c, &c. I 
voted, and exerted my little influence to raise the salaries of the 
21 



822 HORACE GREELEY 

engineers employed in our national steamships, upon due proof that 
they were paid considerably lees than like attainments and services 
would readily command in the mercantile service. I know well, 
that to have voted otherwise, upon such a state of facts, would 
have been no economy at all, hut the reverse of it. I voted to place 
$50,000 at the call of the Secretary of the navy, wherewith to pur- 
chase the patent rights of inventions, which the bureau of con- 
struction and repairs should deem essential to the efficiency of the 
naval service, and for many similar items. In short, while I sought 
to reduce the expense of the army and navy, and of some other 
branches of the public service, I voted readily — perhaps in some 
cases too readily — for whatever seemed calculated to promote the 
national well-being, by extending the peaceful conquests of science, 
and (lie domain of useful knowledge. My general opposition to the 
purchase and distribution of books, by Congress, was based on the 
necessary partiality of the distribution, and beneficent department 
of private enterprise and industry. 

My objections to circular mileage, and votes of extra compensa- 
tion to the servants of Congress, rest on a somewhat different basis. 
That many worthy men charge and vote, as I think wrong, is very 
true ; yet I do not the less feel that those zig-zag allowances and 
lawless gratuities are calculated to blunt the moral perception, and 
confuse the notions of right and wrong, with regard to grants of 
public money. The best man who votes $250 extra to lads of six- 
teen, who have already been paid $10 per week for work, which 
many would have gladly done as well for $5, or who takes mileage 
for a circuit of 2,000 miles, when his actual distance by the nearest 
post road, (the law says roads, not routes,) will be more easily se- 
duced into voting for his friends' private claim of doubtful jus- 
tice, or for putting up a salary, than he would have been before. I 
think, therefore, that the $100,000 or 80 annually taken from the 
treasury, in extra ways, actually stands for a great deal more — 
costs the country much more. The readiness with which both 
Houses doubled the mileage of the messengers who brought the 
electoral votes of the several States to Washington, illustrates this. 
The messengers merely said, "compare our mileage with yours, 
when Congress hastened to weaken the contrast, not. by making 
their own allowances right, but the other also wrong." Can you 
believe this a solitary case ? 

I would gladly speak of the urgent necessity for taking the busi- 
ness of settling private claims from Congress, and committing it to 
some suitable tribunal, but this letter is already too long. A lead- 
ing Senator declared in my hearing, that he would prefer to have 



AS A POLITICIAN. 323 

those claims settled by the inmates of any State-prison, rather than 
by Congress. That was probably too strong' ; yet nothing could 
well be worse than the present system. I ardently hope it may not 
outlast another session. 

My work as your servant, is done — whether well or ill, it remains 
for you to judge. Very likely I gave the wrong vote on some of 
the difficult and complicated questions to which I was called to re- 
spond. Yea or no, with hardly a moment's warning, if so, you can 
detect and condemn the error ; for my name stands recorded in the 
divisions by yeas and nays, on every public, and all but one pri- 
vate bill, (which was laid on the table the moment the sitting 
opened, and on which my name had just been passed as I entered 
the hall.) 

I wish it were the usage among us, to publish less of speeches 
and more of propositions, and votes thereupon — it would give the 
mass of the people a much clearer insight into the management of 
their public affairs. My successor being already chosen and com- 
missioned, I shall hardly be suspected of seeking your further kind- 
ness, and I shall be heartily rejoiced if he shall be able to combine 
equal zeal in your service, with greater efficiency, equal fearless- 
ness, with greater popularity. That I have been somewhat annoyed 
at times, by some of the consequences of my mileage expose, is 
true ; but I have never wished to recall it, nor have I felt that I 
owed an apology to any, and I am quite confident that if you had 
sent to Washington, (as you doubtless might have done,) a more 
sternly, honest and fearless representative, he would have made 
himself more unpopular with a large portion of the House, than I 
did. I thank you heartily for the glimpse of public life which your 
favor has afforded me, and hope to render it useful henceforth, not 
to myself only, but to the public. In ceasing to be your agent, and 
returning with renewed zest to my private cares and duties, I have 
a single, additional favor to ask, not of you, especially, but of all ; 
and, I am sure, my friends at least, will grant it without hesita- 
tion. It is, that you and they will oblige me henceforth, by remem- 
bering that my name is simply, Horace Greeley. 

New York, March 7, 1849. 
—New York Tribune, March 9, 1849. 

Mr. Greeley has been a candidate, one or more times, for 
State offices, against his own wishes, and without success, even 
though running ahead of his party ticket. He was elected a mem- 
ber of the Constitutional Convention of the State of New York, 



324 HORACE GREELEY AS A POLITICIAN. 

and has, from time to time, held many honorable positions in 
corporations, and other local organizations. 

To sum up Mr. Greeley's political character, and present him 
to his countrymen in a true light, we have simply to express his 
own outspoken, moral bravery. His earnest, industrious efforts, 
to do in political life as he would in the department of Industry, 
of Education, and of Reform. He has but one nature, and 
that is peculiar to himself. He has but one course to pursue, 
but one life-practice in all his labors. It is the outward expres- 
sion of his own interior self. The honest, earnest and independ- 
ent self-hood, which knows no policy, that is not dictated by his 
own convictions of right and justice, such a politician is Horace 
Greeley. 



CHAPTER VH. 

HORACE GREELEY AS A STATESMAN. 




iT may seem presumptuous to say that Mr. Webster's defini- 
tion of a statesman, " one versed in the arts of government," 
is not good. Nevertheless, it does seem to be imperfect. 
A statesman is a man who is more than " versed in the arts of 
government." He is a man whose grasp and sagacity of mind 
enables him to comprehend the philosophy of human government, 
and be able to detect errors in the written law, and reform and 
advance his people beyond obsolete and effete principles and poli- 
cies, to new, appropriate, and life-giving laws and political 
doctrines. Such statesmen, were Moses, Lycurgus, Solon, Na- 
poleon and Hamilton ; and to their number may be added 
many more, in our own and other lands, who, though not having 
the same opportunities to impress their thoughts upon their re- 
spective people, were nevertheless equally advanced and reformatory 
in their mental organizations ; equally wide, grasping and saga- 
cious in thoughtful discernment, and inscribed their thoughts and 
teachings upon the institutions and character of their country. 
The great statesman is, in reality, the true legislator. He may 
not, by accident or design, sit in a legislative hall, empowered 
with conventional privileges to render laws efficient and operative, 
but occupy a position, to him far more desirable and influential, 
where he can exert a directing influence upon the people, and pro- 
claim new principles of government and reform, and aid in abolishing 
old forms and effete institutions, by directing the deliberations of 
State and national Legislatures. He who thus rises by the power of 
his own mind, and the righteous rectitude of his own life-practice, to 
a position among his fellows which enables him to mould their 



326 HORACE GREELEY 

institutions and direct their thoughts, is a true and lofty states- 
man- and legislator ; one who " combines the splendid and powerful 
qualities of the patriot and the hero, with thought and delibera- 
tion !" Such, " has an indwelling love for his country and human- 
ity ; a desire to explore and acquire a knowledge of new regions 
of thought. He is a man capable of developing new laws % estab- 
lishing new customs, and introducing his fellow men into new 
paths of progress and development." The first convictions of all 
men are in sympathy with the form of government under which 
they are born and reared, and the first impulses of the youthful 
and aspiring statesman, are impressions of an unalterable at- 
tachment to the nation and government of his birth. Fully 
imbued with loyalty and patriotism, he remains true to the form 
of government, but labors with soul, mind and strength, for such 
reforms as to him seem necessary for the welfare and advance- 
ment of his people. In this, the value of his personal services 
depend upon the grasp and sagacity of his mind, to judge wisely 
of the wrong, and point to the right and the remedy. Herein, 
then, lies the measure of the true and the great statesman, regard- 
less of where he was born, or under what government he may 
happen to live. Turning then, to Mr. Greeley, we are to con- 
sider him in the light of a statesman, and ascertain, if possible, 
to what estimate he is duly entitled among his fellows for wisdom 
and sagacity, determining the scope and duties of government, 
and if any high moral purpose directs him in pointing the way for 
national reform and individual prosperity. At the very beginning 
of this consideration, it must be borne in mind, that Mr. Gree- 
ley's mental organization is such as to make him unusually and ten- 
aciously attached to abstract truths. This will at first seem to some, 
inconsistent with his teachings in favor of a practical career of life. 
But whoever studies this man of marked individuality, sufficiently to 
know him aright, must learn that he has a double nature, each of 
which he is persistent in pushing into the world, and into men's 
faces, with their own peculiar vieWs. One nature is constantly un- 
folding vast and comprehensive theories of government, of social 
society, of humanity and justice ; the other, ever urging and in- 



AS A STATESMAN. 327 

sisting upon the adoption of the most practical and economical 
rules for the management of the government and the citizens. 
Perhaps no man in the country is more distinguished in either of 
these two seeming antagonistic phases of thought, than Mr. Gree- 
ley. And say what men will, these, with his industry and 
strength of mind, have made him what he is, in personality and 
distinction among the world's people. 

Thus comprehending the inherent structure of his mental nature, 
we are at once prepared to consider him as a statesman. Born in 
a government far advanced in the world's progress, yet stained 
with the sins of ancestral nations, and struggling under the weight 
of many bad laws, and cramped in its growth for the want of new 
customs and new paths of progress, the way was open for Mr. 
Greeley to move in advance of his fellows, and to learn aright, 
and comprehend the scope, power, and functions of governments 
and human rights. His nature was adapted for the opportunity, 
and his inborn sense of justice impelled him to the conflict, and 
his whole life was moulded in opposition to the errors, inherited 
and acquired, of the nation and society in which he was born a cit- 
izen and a member. He bravely entered the contest with a weapon 
of mightier power, for battle or defense, than sword or brazen 
armor, and from early manhood has battled for the cause of the 
nation and for the people, with a success unknown to any cotem- 
porary, and without a peer. No one will deny that Horace 
Greeley is not familiar with the theories and forms of ancient 
and modern governments, and that his judgment upon the rights of 
man and their true interests, are as far advanced as any man of 
his age, and that, therefore, he is entitled to be ranked with the 
first statesmen of this or any other country, and in many respects, 
equal to the most advanced legislators of his age. At the very 
beginning of his political career, he declared in favor of the in- 
herent and equal rights of all men. These were his inborn con- 
victions, and standing firmly "upon this rock," it has been the 
essential labor of his life to make all forms of government bend 
unerringly and absolutely, to this divine truth. No form of gov- 
ernment or system of society that did not recognize the equal 



828 HORACE GREELEY 

rights of each citizen under its shining shield, and confer equal 
privileges to all, was to him sinful, and must be cleansed of its 
uncleanness, and its laws made the same to all. He, therefore, 
in spite of the implicit faith in the form of government organ- 
ised by our fathers, waged war upon slavery at the beginning of 
his public labors. And while a few other brave men and women 
were equally devoted to the cause of abolitionism, none worked so 
ardently and so effectively, as Horace Greeley, to rid the coun- 
try of chattel slavery. That Horace Greeley is a statesman, 
in the highest sense of the term, is established by two facts, 
around which will cluster in all time, the greater efforts of the 
wisest legislators. 

I. That the best form of government is that which secures to 
each citizen, equal rights, with the freest exercise of individual 
liberty. 

n. That, that administration of government is the best which 
is least expensive to the citizen and secures the greatest amount 
of prosperity and happiness to the people. 

Around these two theoregms, and for their demonstration, will 
forever cluster the thoughts and efforts of the wise and true states- 
man of the succeeding ages. This proper demonstration will do 
most to solve the problem of man's success and happiness upon this 
planet. 

Mr. Greeley has, without question, done more to advance the 
general welfare of the American people, than any man of his day ; 
which service, together with his comprehension of advanced politi- 
cal principles, establishes, beyond question, his statesmanship, 
and entitles him to rank with the greatest of living legislators. 
His scope of mind, and wisdom, on all questions auxiliary to the 
establishment and maintenance of good government, and the wel- 
fare of the people, add vastly to make him an embodiment of 
advanced statesmanship, and capable and worthy to mould the 
sentiments of his countrymen, and impress his thoughts upon the 
institutions of the Republic. Having considered his abilities, his 
scope and sagacity of mind, as well as his advanced thought 
upon questions of government and subjects subsidiary thereto, it 



AS A STATESMAN. 329 

remains to consider Lis efficiency and wisdom upon auxiliary ques- 
tions of government and society. Horace Greeley has always held, 
that at the basis of society should be a well organized and thor- 
oughly established system of universal free education, in which 
every child of the State could partake, and become disciplined for 
usefulness. 

One of the first and ablest papers from Mr. Greeley's pen, 
and one which unquestionably indicates his ability as a statesman, 
was prepared on the tariff question, for the Whig almanac of 
1843, when he was but thirty-two years old. We submit it as 
evidence of his ability and statesmanship, and ask for it a candid 
reading, and a just decision upon its merits. 

THE PROTECTION OF INDUSTRY — ITS NECESSITY AND EFFECT — BY 
HORACE GREELEY. 

The science of Political Economy is among the latest achieve- 
ments of the human intellect. For thousands of years the energies 
of government (using the term in its largest sense, designating all 
the various forms and shades of political organization, which have 
assumed to regulale and control the conduct and relations of men,) 
were put forth almost exclusively to ravage and destroy, rarely or 
never to build up and foster. The monarch or the chieftain looked 
abroad on the smiling fields, and wealth-creating industry of a 
neighboring nation, and was incited, not to emulate, but to devas- 
tate them. The field, in the language of courts and cabinets, was 
not the theater of man's efforts to increase the sum of human com- 
forts by peaceful and skillful industry, but the arena of murderous 
conflict — or carnage, hideous uproai', and fiendish desolation. The 
renowned and illustrious ruler was not he who had fostered indus- 
try, encouraged laudable enterprise, and largely aided in increasing 
and diffusing the sum of comforts among his people, but he who 
had gained victories, destroyed armies, ravaged countries, and 
slaughtered the unoffending thousands and tens of thousands. From 
this horrible delusion, with regard to the nature and true ends of 
government, the basis and character of true glory, mankind have 
tardily and partially awakened. Even in this nineteenth century, 
the most eminent and renowned warriors — the wholesale butchers 
of the last and former ages — are still the idols of unthinking mil- 
lions. 

Slowly, irregularly, the conviction struggles into ascendancy over 



330 HORACE GREELEY 

the human mind, that the proper functions of government are ben- 
eficent, creative, invigorating; and that the infliction of evil, 
whether on individuals or communities, for the repression of crime 
and wrong-doing, is not the sum of its objects and obligations. 
The completeness of its organization, the fullness of its power, the 
universality of its sway, seem clearly to fit it for an instrumental- 
ity of positive as well as negative good; and the researches of 
statesmen and philosophers have demonstrated that government 
need not be a burden upon the people, but may, by its indirect and 
salutary influences, more than compensate for the taxes which it 
levies, in the amount of its positive and unfailing benefits. In other 
words, the advantages accruing to the community, through a 
proper use of its organization and its faith, may far more than re- 
pay the costs of its economical support. 

Political Economy is the science which treats of the production 
and existence of wealth in a community ; defines what is real wealth, 
and points out the means by which it may be increased and diffused. 
This science is yet in the first century of its recognized existence. 
It opened its eyes upon a world full of absurd regulations, vexa- 
tious restrictions, and pernicious monopolies, extended to enrich 
particular communities at the expense of mankind and particular 
individuals, at the 'expense of their respective communities. 
These restrictions it very properly tested and condemned. Having 
their origin in narrow and selfish views, they aimed to advance the 
interest of a part to the damage of the whole, of the few at the ex- 
pense of the many. Thus hostile to the highest and broadest good, 
they stood condemned alike by enlightened policy and by a gener- 
ous philanthropy. 

In this determined, and to a great extent victorious warfare, of 
the new science upon existing errors and evils, many of its more 
ardent and indiscriminating apostles have been led to assume 
grounds of sweeping hostility to any legislation in aid of the devel- 
opment and due reward of industry. Regarding intently the per- 
version and abuse to which the power of government has in this 
province (as in all others,) been subjected, when impelled by ignor- 
ance and selfishness, they have chosen to deny the power altogeth- 
er, or to dispute the safety and feasibility of its exercise, as the 
only sure way of avoiding the danger of its perversion. But, while 
such have been the dictates of some eminent philosophers of the 
closely and readily caught up, and re-echoed by their more impet- 
uous and less discerning followers, it is at the same time true that 
a large portion of the writers on Political Economy inculcate dif- 
ferent views — views which accord both with the opinions and acts 



AS A STATESMAN. 331 

of the great majority of practical statesmen. While essay is piled 
upon essay to prove that a government can properly usefully do 
nothing in aid of the industry of the people it serves, and that the 
perfection of national policy would be the abolition of all duties on 
imports, and the establishment of absolute free trade, even though 
unreciprocated, but met by restriction and prohibition. Not a -in- 
gle maritime civilized nation ever seriously attempts to reduce 
these principles to practice, but each imposes duties in aid of its 
revenue, and each imposes duties, whether wisely or unwisely, 
with a view to the encouragement of industry, and the increase of 
production within its own territory. Adam Smith Say, Ricardo, 
may inculeate, to the satisfaction of their followers, the folly of 
protection, and the advantages of universal free trade ; hut Colbert, 
Pitt, Napoleon, Canning, AYashington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Clay, 
Webster, are taught by experience the absolute necessity of dis- 
criminating duties to the successful prosecution of industry in all 
its necessary branches, and the upbuilding of a stable prosperity. 
Thus the errors of theory are corrected by the surer inductions of 
practical knowledge, and the most specious fallacies are rendered 
harmless, except to unsettle and disturb. In an age of intelligence 
and universal discussion, they never can be permanently engrafted 
on the actual policy of na) ions. 

But a difference between prevalent theory and necessary prac- 
tice, the deductions of philosophers and the conduct of practical 
men, argues grave errors on one side or the other. On which is it 
in this case? Unquestionably on the side of the theorist, so far as 
the collision actually exists. Nine-tenths of the propositions and 
arguments of the free trade economists are sound and instructive; 
their works may mainly be read with interest and profit by all. 
But on the precise point at issue between them and their intelli- 
gent opponents, they err through a miscalculation in their pre- 
mises. They assume, first, that a community or individual should 
always buy where he can buy cheapest, and sell where he can sell 
dearest. That government should leave all at full liberty to do so ; 
and that thus will be secured at once the greatest incentive and the 
greatest reward to productive industry, in all desirable branches. 
In this way, it is urged, those articles which we import from 
abroad are just as truly the product of home industry as if grown 
or fabricated on our own soil, being procured by exchange for ar. 
tides which we actually did produce — the only difference being 
that we have obtained a greater^ amount of value from a given 
quantity of labor, and thus increased the inducement to and the 
reward of industry. Such are the fundamental positions of the ad- 



332 HORACE GREELEY 

vocates of free trade ; we have stated them as nearly as may be in 
their own language, and with all their natural plausibility, in or- 
der that their full force may be perceived. 

The elemental and fatal error in these propositions is, their con- 
fusion of the ideas of price and absolute value. For instance — 
let us suppose that the entire quantity of woolen goods required 
for the annual consumption of the United States would cost, if pro- 
duced at home, one hundred millions of dollars, while the same 
goods could be procured from Europe for eighty millions. Now, 
protection affirms that in this case it would be conducive to the 
welfare of our country, and to the increase of wealth and comfort 
among our people, to protect efficiently the home manufacture of 
woolens, and produce them on our own soil ; while free trade as- 
serts that we should thereby subject ourselves to a dead loss of 
twenty millions. Which is in the wrong ? In the absence of a tar- 
iff, the goods will flow in from abroad— there is no dispute on that 
point — and the domestic manufacture will be almost if not utterly 
annihilated. But shall we thereby obtain our goods really cheap- 
er, or but nominally so, and in reality much dearer ? In other 
words, at a far greater expense of our labor, than under a system 
of protection ? We answer, that the saving would be nominal and 
deceptive, and that the real cost of the foreign would be far greater 
than that of the domestic supply, and this truth we shall endeavor 
to make clear to every unprejudiced mind. 

Allowing that we buy our woolen fabrics from Europe for 
eighty millions, we shall of course subject ourselves to the neces- 
sity of paying for them — and in what ? Obviously not to any con- 
siderable extent in coin ; for our country does not produce specie, 
and can only export it to a very limited extent. We must pay 
mainly in the products of our agriculture— no matter whether 
those products are sold directly to the manufacturing nations, or 
to others who pay us in something that those nations will receive. 
In either case, this law inflexibly applies, that in order to pay for 
our xooolen fabrics, we must produce and sell eighty millions' 
worth of agricultural or other staples, at a price so much below 
thai prevailing elsewhere, as to admit of their profitable export. 
If, for instance, we pay to a considerable extent in grain or flour 
shipped to Europe, we must produce grain so that it shall be con- 
siderably cheaper here than there. Now, the average price of 
wheat at Odessa, Dantzic, and other continental grain-exporting 
ports, is rather under ninety cents, and it can be thence conveyed 
to England for ten to fifteen cents per bushel. Now, no matter 
Whether the British Corn Laws are upheld or abolished, if we sell 



AS A STATESMAN. 333 

grain at all to England, (and selling it to the continent is out of the 
question,) we must produce it so that it will he at least as cheap 
in our ports as at Odessa and Dantzic. If we are to export any 
considerable quantity, the price must average in New York as low 
as a dollar a bushel, and in more southern parts still lower. And 
in order to he sold in New York at one dollar, it must he produced 
in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, at prices ranging from seventy-five 
down to twenty-five cents per bushel, according to the advantages 
of location or facilities of transporting it to market. The average 
price paid to the wheat-grower could not certainly exceed fifty 
ceuts per bushel, and would probably fall below that amount. 

But, on the other hand, if we decided to protect the home man- 
ufacture, and produce our own clothes, the bare fact of our so 
doing secures a home market for any probable product of grain, 
and at once raises the price of that article very nearly or quite to 
its average rate throughout the world. It may be that the differ- 
ence will not be twenty-five per cent, on the seaboard, while at the 
same time it will be a hundred per cent, in the interior, where it 
is grown. The necessary effect of efficient and stable protection, 
as soon as manufacturers shall have had time to diffuse themselves 
over the country, is to provide a home market for agricultural pro- 
ducts, not merely on the seaboard or in one section, but in every 
section. The reward of labor and other elements of cost being 
substantially equal, manufacturers will tend to that section in 
which food, fuel, and other elements of production are cheapest, 
by a law universal as that of gravitation. And thus, while the farm- 
ers are continually told by our free traders that a duty of forty 
per cent, on woolens would tax them so much for the special ben- 
efit of the manufacturers, the actual effect of protection on their 
interests as a class, and on those of the whole community, will be 
fairly exhibited by the following table : 

ACTUAL COST OF THE WOOLEN GOODS REQUIRED FOR A YEAR'S 
CONSUMPTION OF THE COUNTRY, UNDER FREE TRADE, (NOMI- 
NAL cost, $80,000,000.) 

50,000,000 bushels of wheat, at 50 cents per bushel, $25,000,000 

10,000 tons of ashes, at $100, 1,000,000 

50,000,000 pounds of wool, (exported) at 20 cents, 10,000,000 
20,000,000 bushels of apples, in the absence of a home 

market, worth but 10 cents, ... - 2,000,000 
100,000,000 bush, of potatoes, with an adequate home 

market, worth to the farmer 12 1-2 cents per bu., 12,500,000 



334 HORACE GREELEY 

2,000,000 tons of coal, worth at the mines, say $1.50, 3,000,000 



Total product to the farmers, - $53,500,000 

Deficiency, 26,500,000 

UNDER PROTECTION, (NOMINAL COST, $100,000,000.) 

50,000,000 bushels of wheat at $1.00, - $50,000,000 

10,000, tons of ashes, at $1.25, ... - 1,250,000 
50,000,000 pounds of wool, (wrought up at home,) at 

40 cents, 20,000,000 

20,000,000 bushel of choice apples, with a home mar- 
ket, worth 25 cents per bushel, - - - 25,000,000 
2,000,000 tons of coal, worth at the mines, $2.50, 5,000,000 



Total, $106,250,000 

Excess, 6,250,000 

Here it will be seen that the same agricultural products which 
pays for the year's consumption of woolens and leave an excess, 
though costing nominally $100,000,000, will only pay two-thirds of 
the cost of the same goods if imported, though costing nominally 
but $so,000,000. The difference is made by the existence in the one 
case of an ample market for the farmer's surplus produce within 
his own vicinity, and in the other, trusting to one three or four 
thousaud miles off. I have endeavored to state the prices in each 
instance at least as favorably to free trade as truth and the experi- 
ence of the country will warrant. If the correctness of this or that 
item, or even of the general exhibit, be caviled at, the essential 
truth cannot be disputed, that -we may buy a required amount or 
description of goods abroad much cheaper, {that is, for a smaller 
amount of money,) and yet pay very much more for them than if 
we jjrudaced them at a nominally higher price. And this is the 
vital element which finds no place in the free trade calculation. 

The attentive reader will have perceived 'ere this, that the essen- 
tial question to be solved by a true policy, is one of real, and not 
of nominal cheapness. Political Economy is the science of labor- 
saving, applied to the actions of communities. Its object is to 
save labor from waste, from misapplication, and from loss through 
constrained idleness. Whatever tends to prove that a particular 
article can be procured abroad for a less amount of our domestic 
labor, or its products than it would cost to produce it at home, and 
that this difference in favor of the foreign article, is not casual or 
transient, but has a positive and permanent reason in the nature 



AS A STATESMAN. 335 

of things, will prove effectually that this article cannot be advanta- 
geously produced at home, and is not a proper subject of protect- 
ive legislation. For example, coffee and spices may be produced 
in New York, but only through a forcing process, that renders the 
cost of such product one hundred times that of the imported arti- 
cles. This necessity of hot-house culture is not a transient con- 
dition, pertaining to the infancy of the culture ; it is fixed and im- 
mutable, so long as our present climate shall continue. So long, 
then, it would be idle, it would be madness, to attempt fostering 
the home production of coffee by protection, legislation or other- 
wise. But suppose, that by some mutation of nature, the climate 
of New York should become such as that of the West Indies now 
is, then it would be expedient and wise to encourage the home pro- 
duction of coffee, even though its mony cost at first should consid- 
erably exceed that of the imported article. The comparison of 
protection, therefore, to the policy of raising of coffee in hot- 
houses, or " extracting sunbeams from cucumbers," may be very 
smart, but it fails of becoming effective from its want of pertinence 
and truth. 

We have the means of testing the soundness of the free trade 
maxim, that " trade will best regulate itself," or that individual 
interest will unerringly discern and follow the path which leads to 
the greatest general good, if untrammeled by legislation or public 
polic) T . " Why should I not be allowed to buy my coats of a Paris 
tailor, if he will supply me cheaper than an American one?" The 
answer is, simply, that what he esteems his private interest is at 
war with the public good ; for while the individual may purchase 
a coat for fewer dollars of a French than he could of an American 
tailor, the community will pay, perhaps fewer dollars, but a far 
greater amount of its products, for coats, if they are generally 
bought abroad than if they are made at home. In other words, the 
subtraction from the gross amount of our national wealth would 
be greater if our coats were obtained abroad, than if they were 
produced at home. 

"But why will not this regulate itself?" That is just what we 
have been showing. The individual, having dollars to pay for a 
coat, may obtain it cheapest, looking only to that single transac- 
tion, from the Parisian maker ; but the public will lose more than 
he gains by the transaction, since it pays more for its supply of 
coats from abroad, than for a similar supply produced at home. 
Thus the momentary apparent individual interest is in conflict with 
the permanent, iutrinsic public interest, and one or the other must 
yield. It is the first law of an organized community, that individ- 



336 HORACE GREELEY 

ual action shall be made to conform to the general good. Let us 
put this essential truth in a still clearer light: A. B. is an exten- 
sive fanner in Indiana, and this year plants fifty acres with corn, 
receiving therefrom two thousand bushels, and sows fifty acres 
more with wheat, of which the product is one thousand bushels. 
In the absence of a tariff, he can only procure, say fifty cents a 
bushel for the wheat, and twenty-five for the corn, or one thousand 
dollars for his entire crop. Now, he knows perfectly well, that 
with a good protective tariff, which should secure the manufacture 
at home of all the cloths and wares required for our own consump- 
tion, the price of his products would inevitably be fifty per cent, 
higher, amounting to fifteen hundred dollars. He could then rich- 
ly afford to pay even fifty per cent, higher, if required, for what- 
ever fabrics he should need. But in the absence of such a tariff, 
will he, an individual, out of the meagre proceeds of his grain, pur- 
chase domestic manufactures at the higher prices, while he is sell- 
ing his own products at free trade prices ? Obviously, he will do 
no such thing. If he did, his unsupported individual action would 
have no good effect, either for him or tho community. He might 
go on buying at high and selling at low prices, till dooms-day, to 
his own individual detriment, and to no good end for the public. 
But only impose a tariff which shall secure the home market main- 
ly to the home producer, and the competition, stimulated by a 
certain and steady demand at living rates, will reduce the price of 
the manufactured fabrics, while by increasing largely the number 
in his vicinity who wish to buy agricultural staples, and are able 
to pay for them, it correspondingly increases the market for his 
produce, and the price for it. For, wdiile the price of labor and of 
materials must always govern the price of manufactures, after the 
difficulties incident to their infancy and to foreign competition are 
surmounted, the price of agricultural staples, which are of gaeater 
bulk and more costly of transportation, will, to a great extent, be 
governed by the nearness or distance of the market at which the 
surplus is consumed, as we have already indicated. Assuming the 
average value of w r heat throughout the world to be a dollar a 
bushel, and in districts where manufactures preponderate, (in oth- 
er words, where the demand for grain exceeds the home supply,) 
a dollar and a quarter, it follows inevitably that if our manufac- 
tures are generally brought from Europe, the market for our sur- 
plus agricultural produce must also, to a great extent, be found 
abroad, and the farmer in Illinois must sell his grain at the price it 
bears in a foreign market, less the cost and charges of sending it 
there, in other words, at thirty to fifty cents a bushel. But let, oar 



AS A STATESMAN. 337 

policy be so adjusted that the manufactures consumed by those re- 
gions are mainly produced at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, 
and on the rapids of their own abundant streams, and the money 
price which the farmer receives for his grain will be more than 
doubled, and the amount of goods of all kinds received by him in 
exchange for a hundred bushels of grain, will be nearly or quite 
doubled. But this is not all, nor even the best. There are thou- 
sands of agricultural products which commands next to no price 
at all in the absence or distance of such a market as manufactures 
must supply. Thus, wood, fruits, pork, vegetables, poultry, etc., 
are now sold throughout the West at prices so low, as hardly to 
be credible," while, if the manufactured goods there consumed, 
were there made, they would readily bring from three to ten times 
as much. And yet the public ear is incessantly dinned with the 
bold assertion that the farmers do not need protection ! and that a 
discriminating tariff taxes them for the sole benefit of the manufac- 
turers. 

"But why," asks an inquirer, "do manufactures need protection 
any more than other products?" We answer: The cost of trans- 
porting manufactures from England to Peoria or Indianapolis, will 
probably fall below two per cent, on their value, while to scud back 
wheat and corn in return, will cost at least two hundred per cent. 
The mere bulk of agricultural staples, and the consequent expense 
of transporting them, affords a protection twenty-five to one hun- 
dred per cent, against any influx from abroad, which is wholly ab- 
sent in the case of manufactures. But, in addition to this, the price 
or rent of land is one great element of the cost of agricultural pro- 
ducts, and one that is much cheaper in America than in Europe. 
On the other hand, immediate labor is the chief element in the cost 
of manufactures, and land hardly an item. In a country where 
labor is comparatively dear, and land cheap, as in ours, agricultur- 
al products will be relatively cheaper, and manufactures clearer 
than in Europe, in the absence of counteracting policy. A protec- 
tive duty in aid of home manufactures, while it will hardly in- 
crease the price of the protected articles, and will, in most cases, 
ultimately reduce it, will inevitably and largely increase the price 
of agricultural products, perhaps not so much in our sea-ports, but 
certainly over the wide expanse of the country. A duty of one 
hundred per cent, on agricultural staples alone, would not increase 
their price ten per cent., because there is no considerable importa- 
tion to check; while a duty of fifty per cent, on foreign manufac- 
tures would increase the average price of agricultural staples at 
least fifty per cent. It is, therefore, one of the plainest, clearest of 

22 



338 HORACE GREELEY 

economical truths, that the true way to encourage and reward agri- 
culture, is by protecting and fostering manufactures, and thus pro- 
viding a convenient and safe market with adequate prices for ag- 
ricultural products. In other words : The true way to increase 
industry and its rewards, is not by attracting it to those depart- 
ments of production already overstocked, and so increasing 
surpluses for which there is no adequate demand or reward, but 
by developing new branches of industry, opening new avenues to 
useful employment, and thus rounding out and perfecting the great 
circle of industrial effort. If all the industry of a country or a 
community is directed to one department, one inevitable result is, 
that the product of that industry bears a lower price there than 
throughout the world generally, while whatever else they buy or 
consume costs them more than its average price elsewhere. At 
the same time, that single department does not furnish sufficient 
and advantageous employment for all ages, tastes, sexes' capacities, 
and conditions ; and there is inevitably much idleness or compara- 
tively unproductive effort. But let manufactures, agriculture, 
arts, and every department of industrial effort be prosecuted to- 
gether, as nearly as may be, and there is employment and reward 
for all, and no danger of prostration to any through a revulsion 
or caprice in some far off market, or through the obstacles inter- 
posed by maritime or other hostilities. This is the consummation 
to which national prosperity aspires, and protection emphatically 
tends. 

Let us suppose, for further example, that the American people, 
tired of buying the products of a European manufacturing popu- 
lation of three or four millions, at an oppressive disadvantage to 
the producers on both sides, should at once resolve and proclaim, 
"we will buy no longer of Europe, but let the European manufac- 
turers come to us, and we will give them better employment, 
better pay, and better living than they now have ;" what would be 
the result ? The manufacturers, finding their employment and pay 
diminished, would certainly come over in sufficient numbers, and 
foreign manufactures being no longer imported, would find abund- 
ant employment. No truth is more settled than this, that the ex- 
change of agricultural and manufacturing products among the 
same people, will always find their natural and proper equilibrium. 
Now, our farmers could surely produce as much grain and meat as 
now, since there would be nothing to prevent, and the manufactur- 
ers could very soon produce as much cloth, wares, etc., in this 
country as they do in Europe ; the advantages offered by the im- 
mense aggregation of capital and machinery abroad, being fully 



AS A STATESMAN. 339 

counterbalanced by tbe superior cheapness of our abundant water- 
power over steam, of our timber, wood, etc., and the remarkable 
ingenuity of our people in the invention and improvement of la- 
bor-saving machinery. Our farmers thus producing as much food 
as now, and our manufactures producing as much cloth, etc., here 
as they now do in Europe, does not every one see that an immense 
saving would be secured to both in the diminution of the enor- 
mous force now diverted from production to needless transporta- 
tion and traffic ? Here is an utter waste of the energies and efforts 
of millions, who must levy their support upon the actual produc- 
ers, to whom they are necessary under the present system. At 
this moment, for broadcloth costing three dollars per yard, the 
farmers of Illinois and Indiana are paying from six to twelve bush- 
els of wheat ; while the manufacturer in England, is receiving less 
than two bushels ! The balance is swallowed up by the expenses 
of transportation, sale and re-sale, British taxes, tithes, etc. But 
let us adopt and adhere to such a policy as will woo the manufac- 
turer to a residence among us, and he will receive much more 
wheat for a piece of cloth, while the farmer receives much more 
cloth for a load of wheat ; the saving of four thousand miles profit- 
less transportation being shared between them. Such are the re- 
sults and the benefits of the protective system. 

The careful reader will already have perceived that the founda- 
tions of that system are laid not in strife, not in envy, jealousy, or 
ill-will, but in the highest good to man, and to all men. We do 
not commend it as desirable for or beneficial to this country, or its 
farmers, only, but for all countries, all classes, and all times. 
Wherever man shall, in the sweat of his brow, eat bread, there it 
is desirable that all departments of industry shall be prosecuted as 
nearly as may be together, unless some condition of climate or soil 
shall forbid it ; and if through unequal currencies, diverse institu- 
tions, or other cause, this intermingling of agricultural and man- 
ufacturing avocations fails to take place naturally, then it is de- 
sirable that public policy should interpose to secure it. If the arti- 
cles which one now buys, shall for a time cost more, those which 
he has to sell, will, at the same time, command more ; and after a 
brief season, the alleged evil will disappear, while the benefit per- 
manently remains, having its root in the nature of things. The 
case is just like this: A. B. raises wheat in Ohio, which he ex- 
changes with C. D. for manufactures in Montreal, while E. F. 
makes his living by carrying back and forth the grain and goods. 
But, in course of time, G. H. sets up a manufactory or depot with- 
in a mile of A. B., and offers to supply him goods for grain at the 



340 HORACE GREELEY 

same rate that he has hitherto traded in Montreal. By accepting 
this offer, A. B. makes a clear Baying of the amount formerly paid 
to E. F. for his services, and the latter is left to abandon his unpro- 
ductive, and betake himself to some productive employment, where- 
by there is a clear saving of the whole of his services to the world. 
In other words, the same amount of labor produces so much more 
of the necessaries or comforts of life than formerly, and the com- 
munity is to that extent enriched by the change. 

And here is shown the fallacy of the free trade cavil, that if pro- 
tection is so good a thing for nations, it must be good for states, 
counties, towns, and even families also, and that each should pro- 
tect its own industry against the rivalry of all neighbors, and the 
farmer make his own boots, hats and broadcloth, as well as the 
nation. All must see that while a nation affords full scope and ma- 
terials for a perfect and economical division of labor, a family, or 
township does not; and that, while the expense of transporting 
grain from Indiana to manufacturers in Cincinnati or Louisville 
may be very light, the cost of taking the same grain to Birmingham 
or Manchester, would be enormous. The case is just as if a man 
should say, "you tell me I cannot afford to go a hundred miles for 
the boots and shoes I ueed, because the cost of the journey will 
overbalance the saving in price ; now, on the same principle, I can- 
not go a hundred rods, but must buy of the nearest and dearest 
manufacturer, or make for myself." The analogy here is obvious- 
ly defective and unsound, and so with the cavil referred to. 

Equally fallacious is the objection that England protects her own 
industry, yet her laborers are depressed and wretched; therefore, 
Protection is a curse to the laborer. This is one of those loose, im- 
perfect analogies by which anything may be proved, and which of 
course proves nothing. The English laborer is depressed, not be- 
cause his labor is protected, but for very different reasons. He is 
trodden down by laws of primogeniture, which secure to a few 
persons a monopoly of all the real property in the kingdom, and 
of course compel the mass to pay enormously high rents for the use 
of lands, etc. ; by an enormous public debt and public burdens of 
all kinds; by an extravagant government, an immense army, a 
pampered priesthood of the established church, etc., etc. Put the 
public burdens of the English upon us, and we could not bear them 
a single year. Abolish every vestige of her tariff, and without oth- 
er or more radical changes she would still be a nation of prodigals 
and paupers. Her evils lie far too deep for so superficial a rem- 
edy. 

I have not urged at all the argument of necessity founded on the 



AS A STATESMAN. 341 

tariffs of other nations, and their hearing upon our interests. How 
we are to pay for foreign manufactures when the producing na- 
tions will not take our grain, wheat, etc., in return, is indeed, a 
prohlem most difficult to solve and of whose insolubility our present 
depressed, embarrassed, and crippled condition, is a mournful evi- 
dence. At this moment, while the makers of our cloths and wares 
are paying twenty cents a pound for pork in England, the wearers 
of that cloth are selling pork at one cent a pound in Illinois. Here 
is an enormous difference between the price received by the pro- 
ducer and that paid by the consumer — a difference which is utterly 
ruinous to productive industry on both sides. How long shall it 
be submitted to? 

Enlightened protection is emphatically the hope and stay of the 
toiling millions over the whole face of the earth. "Wherever a ham- 
mer is lifted, a plow held, a shuttle thrown, over the globe, thei'e 
is one whose direct interest it is that labor should be efficiently 
protected, not merely in his own but in all countries, and that the 
excessive and fatal competition of capital with capital, sinew with 
sinew, privation with privation, to excel in cheapness of produc- 
tion — that is, cheapness of money price — should be checked and 
bounded. Let labor, therefore, with one mighty voice, demand 
adequate, stable protection, and a wider and deeper prosperity will 
soon irradiate the land carrying independence, comfort, and joy to 
the dwelling alike of the farmer and artisan, in every section of the 
country. 

August 20, 1842. 

His views upon the distribution of the wild lands of the govern- 
ment to actual settlers, though not distinctively his own, have 
become organic in the legislation of the country. His persistent 
plea for economy in the expenditures of public money, has done 
much to lessen the expenses of the government, as well as of 
States. 

His views upon financial and foreign questions, have usually 
been good. He has always been advising a policy that would keep 
up the credit of the nation, and form friendly alliances with for- 
eign powers. In 1854, when the Know-Nothing party was organ- 
ized, and a sanguine effort made to spread the organization all 
over the country, to the full extent of controlling the national pol- 
itics, Mr. Greeley, with that far-seeing judgment of his, and 
which is always tempered with justice to his fellows, boldly opposed 



342 HORACE GREELEY 

the movement, and published in the Whig Almanac of 1855, 
the following essay, containing his views upon the subject of 

THE KNOW-NOTHINGS. 

The political events of the year 1854, are: 1. The passage of the 
Nebraska bill. 2. The veto of the River and Harbor bill. 3. The 
defeat of the Federal administration, through its supporters, iu 
nearly all the Free States of the Union, mainly in consequence of 
the general opposition to so much of the Nebraska bill, as repeals 
the Missouri restriction on the westward progress of slavery. 4. 
The rise and progress of the Know-Nothings. 

The Act of Congress, and the election returns herewith printed, 
will shed light on most, or all of these events, but the rise of the 
new power in our politics, known as the Know-Nothings, seems to 
require some further elucidation. 

Congress is empowered by the Constitution to pass uniform laws 
of naturalization ; yet it has been legally decided, that no law so 
passed, can oblige a State to admit to, or exclude from the political 
franchises in accordance with its provisions. That is, to say : 
Congress may extend the term of probation for immigrants seek- 
ing to become citizens to twenty or forty years, and yet any State 
may admit those same probationers to vote, to hold office, and even 
be elected to the lower House of Congress, itself, before they shall 
have resided among us even one year. 

The exclusive power of naturalization vested in Congress, is thus 
practically of small account ; the States being enabled to overrule 
or evade it, as they may see fit. 

And, in fact Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and perhaps other Free 
States, have extended the right of suffrage to immigrants who had 
not been naturalized, nor lived long enough among us to be en- 
titled to naturalization. The first Act of Congress establishing the 
conditions of naturalization, was quite liberal — much like our 
present law. 

The great convulsion in Europe, generated by the French Rev- 
olution of 1789-93, however, threw upon our shores a large body of 
exiles and refugees from the British Isles, from France, &c, of 
whom the younger and more energetic portion were eager to in- 
volve this country in a war with Great Britain, and other aristo- 
cratic powers, in favor of Democracy, and Revolutionary France. 

Their efforts were sternly resisted by the Federal administrations 
of Washington and John Adams, and the refugees very naturally 
became the active and implacable adversaries of the Federal party 



AS A STATESMAN. 343 

Heuce, iu 1798, Congress, under the Presidency of John Adams, 
passed an Act, requiring fourteen years' residence of this country, 
prior to naturalization — an act which did not prevent, hut prob- 
ahly aided the overthrow of Adams, and the election of Jefferson, 
in the heated and memorable presidential contest of 1800. 

The Jeffersonian triumph insured a return to liberality in natur- 
alization ; and the act was passed, which still endures, reducing the 
term of probation to five years, and requiring a declaration of in- 
tention to become a citizen, at least two years before that inten- 
tion can be consummated. The naturalized citizens, improperly 
termed " foreigners," continued, very naturally, to vote almost 
unanimously for the party which had thus lowered the barrier be- 
tween their former estate and citizenship ; and, as they were in the 
average notoriously less intelligent, and more inclined to bellig- 
erent demonstrations at the polls than our native-born electors, 
they often viewed with unfriendly regard by those whom, by 
throwing their whole weight into one of the scales, nearly balanced 
without them, they pretty generally overbalanced at the polls. 
Accordingly, we find the easy naturalization and great power of 
foreigners, enumerated among the chronic grievances complained 
of by the ultra-Federalists, in the famous Hartford Convention of 
1814-15. And when Albert Gallatin was nominated for Vice-Pres- 
ident in 1824, as the Republican or Congressional caucus candidate, 
it was objected to him, that he, being of foreign (Swiss) birth, and 
therefore constitutionally ineligible to the Presidency, ought not 
to be chosen to the second office, which might involve him at any 
moment, in the discharge of the high responsibilities of the first. 
Still, no change in the law of naturalization was made or seriously 
urged in Congress, nor has there been, down to this December, 
1854. 

In 1835-6-7, a "Native American" organization — not very for- 
midable, nor yet very decided and definite in its purposes — was 
maintained in the city of New York ; but it dealt mainly with mu- 
nicipal affairs, and did not make head in the Fall or State election 
of 1837. 

Nothing more was heard of it until 1843, when the Democrats, 
having regained control of the city at the Spring election, in good 
part through the efforts of the adopted citizens, (and, as was stout- 
ly alleged, by the aid of illegal voting to an enormous extent,) pro- 
ceeded to parcel out the newly won offices, and gave so considera- 
ble a share of them to their partisans born in Europe, as to excite 
very general dissatisfaction and disgust among their native-born 
compatriots. Hereupon, nativism sprang into new life, this time 



344 HORACE GREELEY 

having its oi'igin in the Democratic camp, but soon drawing ip 
thousands from the opposite party. 

It polled 9,000 votes at the Fall elections of that year, and next 
Spring carried the city, most of the Whigs falling into its support 
as the only way of beating their old antagonists. 

James Harper (native) was chosen Mayor, having some 25,000 
votes to 20,000 for Coddington, (Dem.) and 5,000 for Graham, 
(Whig,) and a strong native ascendency in every branch of the city 
government, was secured. 

Thence the flame spread to Philadelphia, where it was swelled 
by repeated riots and fights between the natives and the Irish, in 
the course of which several lives were desti'oyed, and much prop- 
erty, including one or two Catholic churches. The cities of Phil- 
adelphia and New York were both carried in the Fall by the na- 
tives, with such help as the Whigs chose to give them in the ex- 
pectation of securing in return, the entire native vote for Clay and 
Frelinghuysen, and thus electing those candidates. 

This expectation was disappointed ; New York city gave 2,800 
majority against Clay, at the same time that it chose native mem- 
bers of Congress and Assembly, and both this State and Pennsyl- 
vania voted for Polk, and elected him. Next Spring nativism was 
beaten in our city, and was prostrate or extinct everywhere. But 
its spirit was not wholly dead. 

It gave rise to a secret society, known as " The Order of United 
Americans," which has ever since existed, and though ostensibly 
taking no part in politics, has occasionally given a lift to a brother 
who was up for oftice, especially if a "foreigner," or champion of 
foreigners were running against him. 

Very little attention, however, was excited by its doings. In 
1852, a neAV secret Order was devised and started, having the same 
general object, but more subtle in its principles and operations. 
Its animating spirit, is hostility to the exercise of political power 
in this country, by "foreigners," — that is, men born in other lands 
— but more especially to Roman Catholics. 

Its members are popularly termed Know-Nothings, because 
they are required, when interrogated with respect to this Order, 
to declare that they know nothing about it, and to answer all man- 
ner of interrogatories in that spirit. 

The very name of the Order is not revealed to them until they 
are admitted to its higher degrees, so that they can conscientiously 
swear that they know no such society, and do not belong to it. 

(It is understood to be " The Sons of '76, or Order of the Star- 
Spangled Banner.") No badges are worn by the members at any 



AS A STATESMAN. 345 

time, nor banners displayed ; their meetings are held as privately 
as possible, and called by a signal, understood only by the initia- 
ted. Each lodge is represented by delegates to a " Council," which 
nominate candidates whom the members are sworn to support, and 
punished by expulsion, when they fail to do so. 

And, so long as the councils adhered to their original plan of se- 
lecting the best men already in nomination, from the tickets of 
the several parties, and voting for them without giving public no- 
tice of their choice until the ballots were counted out of the box, 
they were well nigh invincible. For instance, suppose the Know- 
Nothings of this city to number 5,000 only, composed of 3,000 "Whig8 
and 2,000 Democrats ; the concentration of their entire vote on a 
ticket made up by selection from the regular "Whig and Democratic 
tickets, would almost inevitably result in their complete triumph. 
Thus were won their earlier victories. 

More recently, however, they have seen fit, in many cases, to nom- 
inate tickets of their own, containing few or no names borne on 
other tickets. 

Thus they have succeeded in Delaware and Massachusetts, (two 
of the States which went strongest for John Adams, against Jeff- 
erson ;) while they have failed in New York, where their State 
ticket ran below either its " "Whig," or its " Soft " antagonist. In the 
local or municipal elections, however, this secret organization has 
often exhibited great strength, especially where the "Whig party 
has declined to oppose it — witness Baltimore, New Orleans, San 
Francisco, etc. 

It is now organizing, and drilling to play an important part in 
the next presidential contest, and among those severally mentioned 
as its probable nominee for President, are Millard Fillmore of New 
York, Sam Souston of Texas, John M. Clayton of Delaware, John 
Bell of Tennessee, Kenneth Raynor of North Carolina, and Jacob 
Broome, of Pennsylvania. In case a southern man should be tak- 
en for President, the Vice Presidency is assigned, by public rumor, 
to Daniel Ullmann of New York. But all such forecastings are 
subject to time and chance, and the powerful Order is already, as 
is reported, beset by jars and feuds, which threaten its unity, if not 
its existence. 

Unless past experience misleads, it is likely to run its career rap- 
idly, and vanish as suddenly as it appeared. It may last through 
the next presidential canvass, but hardly longer than that ; or it 
may cast off its cloak of mystery, and come into the field of open 
conflict, a native American and anti-Romanist party, and win two 
or three victories on that platform. 



346 HORACE GREELEY 

But it would seem as devoid of the elements of persistence, as an 
anti-Cholera, or anti-Potato-Rat party would he, and unlikely long 
to abide the necessary attrition of real and vital differences of opin- 
ion among its members, with respect to the great questions of For- 
eign and Domestic Policy, which practically divide the country. 
These must soon dissolve its compact organization, district its 
councils, 

" And like the baseless fabric of a vision, 
Leave not a wreck behind." 

A very important paper of Mr. Greeley's setting forth his 
views on party politics, appeared in the Whig Almanac of 1852, 
and entitled "Why I am a Whig." It really is an able State 
paper, and goes far to prove the sagacity and comprehension of 
the author's mind. Notwithstanding, we reproduce it twenty 
years after its first publication, the reader will find it well worth 
perusal: 

WHY I AM A WHIG — REPLY TO AN INQUIRING FRIEND. 

My Dear P : — You have been pleased to express your sur- 
prise that I, whom you consider in other respects liberal and 
progressive, should yet sympathize and act with the American 
Whig party, rather than its great antagonist. 

The time and place chosen for this expression precluded an im- 
mediate and circumstantial reply ; you will excuse, therefore, the 
medium and method of my answer. I hope to be able to present 
to your mind, or at least to the minds of others less prejudiced 
against my conclusions, some considerations hitherto overlooked, 
or inadequately weighed and regarded. 

May I not fairly claim of you a patient and, if possible, a candid 
hearing ? Two grand and fruitful ideas attract and divide the po- 
litical world. 

On" the one hand Liberty, on the other Order, is the watchword 
of a mighty host, impatient of resistance and eager for universal 
dominion. 

Each has had its reign — nay, its reign of terror ; and the butch- 
eries of Catiline and Marius, of Marit and Robesphere, have been 
fully paralleled by those of Alva and Claverhouse, of Survarrow 
and Haynan. 

An infinity of cruelty and crime has been perpetrated in the 
abuses name of Order, and hardly less in that equally abused of 
Liberty. But neither of these suffices without the other. Each is 



AS A STATESMAN. 347 

indispensable to general contentment, prosperity and happiness. 
No good is secured in the absence of either. 

If, without Liberty human existence is bitter and irksome, with- 
out Order it is precarious and beset with constant perils. 

Few men will clear, and plant, and build, without a reasonable 
assurance that they shall likewise reap, and inhabit, and enjoy. 

For Liberty, a nation wisely and nobly discards present tran- 
quility, thrift and peace, just as it welcomes the tempest and the 
thunderbolt, rather than endure eternal drouth and consequent 
sterility, but, having achieved freedom, it finds itself compelled to 
rebuild the shattered bulwarks of Order, and re-affirm the sacred 
majesty of law. Anarchy or mob-rade is the worst of despotisms ; 
it is the rule of thousands of savage tyrants, instead of one ; it is 
the carnival of unbridled lust, brutality and ruffianism. 

As an escape from this, the government even of Egypt or Na- 
ples would be joyfully accepted by all who prefer to walk in the 
quiet paths of industry and virtue. 

Now Republics have their peculiar perils no less than monarch- 
ies, and they, though diverse, are not unrelated. What the syco- 
phant, the courtier, is to the Sovereign Prince, the Demagogue is 
to the Sovereign People. The maxim that " The King can do no 
wrong " is as mischievous in a Free State as in any other. 

Nations, as well as Kings, have their weaknesses, their vices, 
their temptations ; they, too, need to be frequently reminded of 
the Macedonian's admonition, "Remember, Philip, thou art mor- 
tal. " 

They, too, are subject to the illusion of false glory. They are 
often impelled to kill or to enslave their neighbors under the pre- 
tence of liberating them ; they are in danger of mistaking the 
promptings of ambition or covetousness for those of philanthropy 
or destiny. 

Nowhere is their greater need of conservatism than in a young, 
powerful and martial Republic. 

It was by no accident, or fortuitous concurrence of events, there- 
fore, that "Washington, Knox, Hamilton, and the great majority of 
those who had battled bravely and perseveringly for American In- 
dependence during the revolution, became afterwards the founders 
and champions of the more conservative and less popular party 
under the Federal Constitution. 

When the country needed defense against foreign tyranny, and 
again when it required guidance through the perils of domestic 
anarchy, they were found at the post of danger and of duty. 

That they committed errors in either case is quite probable, but 



348 HORACE GREELEY 

the patriotic instinct which summoned them to the defense of en- 
feebled Order was identical with that which had previously called 
them to battle under the flag of Liberty. 

And while it is quite possible to err on the side of Order as well 
as that of Liberty, the tendency, the temptation, in a Democracy 
like ours, is almost wholly on the side of the latter. 

Where the King is " the fountain of honor," self-seeking flatters 
and panders to the monarch ; where the people are the sources of 
power, the courtier becomes a demagogue, and labors to ingratiate 
himself with that active, daring, reckless minority, who habitually 
attend political gatherings, give tone to the public sentiment of 
bar-rooms, always vote and solicit votes at elections, direct the 
most efficient party machinery, and thus virtually stand for what 
they assume to be — the people. The clanger of erring lies inevi- 
tably on the same side with the temptation. 

Strictly speaking, there is but one organized, disciplined party 
in our country — that which assumes to be the champion and em- 
bodiment of Democracy. 

This party enjoys certain vast advantages in a contest over any 
which can be mustered against it. 

In the first place, it has the more popular name — one which the 
most ignorant comprehend, in which the most depressed find 
promise of hope and sympathy, and which the humble and lowly 
immigrant, just landed from his Atlantic voyage, recognizes as the 
watchword of Liberty in the beloved land whence he is for Lib- 
erty's sake an exile. 

Of course he rallies under the flag so invitingly inscribed, and 
suffers his prejudices to be enlisted on behalf of one party before 
le knows wherein and why it differs from the other. 

Not one-fourth of our voters of European birth ever primarily 
considered the claims of the two parties respectively to their sup- 
port, and gave an impartial judgment between them. They were 
never fairly in a position to do so. 

Here are a half a million votes, to begin with, secured to the 
self-styled Democracy by their name, and there are at least as 
many natives of our soil who vote "the regular ticket" because of 
its name, and would at least as heartily support protection to 
Home Labor, River and Harbor Improvements, &c, as they now 
oppose them, if the Democratic label were taken from the one 
side, and affixed to the other. 

This vast dead-weight fastened in one scale naturally attracts 
thither a large class of young lawyers and other aspirants who are 
more anxious to be on the winning than on the right side, and 



AS A STATESMAN. 349 

"whose gaze is facinated and fixed by the prospect of judgeships, 
seats in the Legislature, &c, &c. 

Thus the party termed Democratic, commences a struggle for 
ascendency with nearly or quite one-third of the votes attached to 
its standard, not by any enlightened, unprejudiced judgment that 
the country will be benefited by its success, but by considerations 
quite foreign to this ; whilst its antagonist obtains few or no votes 
but those of reading or thinking men, who, judging from experi- 
ence, and the doctrines propounded and measures promoted on 
either side, earnestly believe the ascendency of that self-styled 
Democratic party fraught with evil to the nation. 

And yet, in spite of its immense advantages aside from the 
merits of the case, in spite, also, of the prestige of former tri- 
umphs, almost unbroken, that Democratic party has been beaten 
in two of the three last presidential elections, and barely succeeded 
in the other. Could such have been the fact, if its distinctive prin- 
ciples and practices had not been decidedly adverse to the plain 
requirements of the public weal? 

Let me here briefly indicate, according to my understanding of 
the fact, that those distinctive characteristics are : 

1. The party styling itself Democratic is, as regards foreign 
powers, the more belligerent and aggressive party. 

It takes delight in shaking its fists in the face of mankind in gen- 
eral. 

It made all the foreign wars in which our country has been in- 
volved since her independence was acknowledged. 

In its secret councils the wresting of Texas from Mexico, and her 
annexation to this country, were plotted. 

There the Mexican war was precipitated by the absurd claim 
that Texas extended to the Rio Grande del Norte, and by sending 
General Taylor down to take post in the very heart of a Mexican 
department, under the guns of its capital. 

In those councils peace was refused to Mexico after she had been, 
beaten into a concession of the Rio Grande boundary, unless she 
would further consent to sell us for money vast areas of Territory, 
which it was not even pretended that she owed us, which, by of- 
fering her fifteen millions therefor, our rulers plainly confessed 
that he had no just claim to. 

In these councils were plotted the several invasions of Cuba, 
under the pretense that her inhabitants pined for deliverance from 
Spanish ascendency — a pretense -thoroughly exploded by the event. 

Thence originated the mob-gatherings in our cities, to raise men 
and money in aid of Lopez ; thence, also, the shameful riots in 



350 HORACE GREELEY 

New Orleans, wherein the property of peaceful and harmless 
Spanish residents was destroyed, their safety endangered, and 
their conusel barely saved from a violent death by taking refuge 
in a prison. 

For these shameful outrages Democracy had never a word of re- 
gret, though it was eager enough to drive our government into 
hostile demonstrations against Spain, because her war steamer had 
compelled our Falcon to heave to and satisfy them that she was 
not engaged in landing invaders on the Cuban coast. 

This harmless act of maritime police, which no captain of a war- 
steamer, under like circumstances, would have been justified in 
omitting, and which none who carried the American flag would 
ever have thought of omitting, had Spaniards been the invaders 
and our coast the scene of action, has been trumpeted through the 
land as a wanton and lawless aggression, for which the fullest rep- 
aration should be exacted, and which our Whig Cabinet evinced 
great pusillanimity in not promptly resenting. 

This is a fair sample of the spirit by which that party was ani- 
mated nearly twenty years ago. It threatened France with war, in 
case the money she owed our merchants for spoliations committed 
under her flag, since 1800, were not promptly paid ; though an 
equal amount due our merchants for French spoliations before 
1800, and which our government for a valuable consideration, by 
it received, had promised a half century since to discharge, though 
often petitioned for, then remained unpaid, and still remains so, 
one bill providing for its payment having been vetoed by a 
" Democratic" President, and another defeated in the House by a 
" Democratic " opposition. 

And so, from first to last, partisan " Democracy" has. steadily 
evinced a disposition to bully other nations for the payment of 
doubtful debts, while refusing on frivolous pretexts to pay indis- 
putable debts of our own. 

No reproach has been more commonly applied to the "Whig 
party by its enemies than that of being a " peace party," and of 
" taking the side of the enemy," and nothing could be said, which, 
rightly regarded, redounds more to its praise. 

It is easy and popular, in case of international disputes, to take 
extreme ground, to insist on all the points which favor our own 
country, and slur over those which make for its antagonist — easy 
to rouse the dogs of war, and cry havoc amidst the shouts of ex- 
cited and admiring multitudes. 

But to urge that there is another side of the pieture, which also 
demands consideration — that men are not necessarily demons be- 



AS A STATESMAN. 351 

cause they live across a river, or speak a different language from 
ourselves — that we have not only endured wrong but done wrong, 
and that the claims put forth on our behalf are beyond the meas- 
ure of justice — this is not the way to win huzzas nor elections, 
yet it is the course often dictated by duty and genuine patriotism. 

Honor, then, to that party which has repeatedly dared to stem 
the mad torrent of revenge and lust of conquest, and to receive 
into its own bosom the darts aimed at foreign people, States and 
nations, and calculated to stir up revengeful passions in their 
breasts in turn. 

" Blessed are the peacemakers," and blessed also are they who 
for half a century have stood forth the unshrinking antagonists of 
aggression and war ! 

" We are a land-stealing race !" was once exultingly propounded 
in Tammany Hall, by a chief actor in the theft of Texas, who is 
now a formidable aspirant for the Democratic nomination for the 
Presidency. 

"With our covetous, aggressive propensities thus broadly pro- 
claimed, who shall say that credit is not due to that party which 
dares entrench itself across the path of national rapacity, and re- 
ceive the first charge of the headlong host upon its own thinned 
ranks, rather than permit it to pour itself unchecked across the in- 
viting possessions of our neighbors. 

2. Opposed to the instinct of boundless acquisition, stands that 
of Internal Improvement. A nation cannot simultaneously devote 
its energies to the absorption of others' Territories, and the im- 
provement of its own. 

In a state of war, not law only is silent, but the pioneer's axe, 
the canal-digger's mattock, and the house-builder's trowell also. 

Vainly should we hope to clear, and drain, and fence, and ferti- 
lize, our useless millions of acres, at the same time that we are 
intent on bringing the whole vast continent under our exclusive 
dominion. 

It is by no accident, therefore, but by an instinct profounder 
than any process of reasoning, that the Democratic party arrays 
itself against the prosecution of Internal Improvements. 

Individuals in that party may demur, and local or personal in- 
terests may overbear party tenents and tendencies, but it is none 
the less true that " the party " is essentially hostile to the Im- 
provement policy. 

We see this evinced in its votes against and vetoes of river and 
harbor improvement bills, in its repudiations, its hostility to cor- 
porations, &c, &c. 



352 HORACE GREELEY 

Individuals in the party "will pretend to be in favor of the prose- 
cution of such improvements, but not by the General Government, 
nor by the State Government, nor yet by a company of citizens, 
unless clogged with conditions which render such prosecution 
morally impossible. 

Thus, New Hampshire, under "Democratic" guidance, under- 
took to saddle all corporations with the individual liability of 
each stockholder for the full amount of every debt incurred by the 
company, thus repelling men of large capital or caution, and effect- 
ually obstructing progress. To' this succeeded a party attempt 
to make every railroad company buy every foot of land it was 
compelled to cross at the owner's valuation, in effect giving one 
rapacious or perverse landholder on the line of a projected rail- 
road a power to prevent its construction. 

This ground was finally receded from, when the combination of 
local interest with Whig resistence, threatened to revolutionize the 
State ; but the spirit which dictated the 'effort still lives and 
reigns, though deterred by fear of consequences from that particu- 
lar mode and measures of self-exhibition. 

I watched with intense and painful interest, the last hours of the 
late Congress. 

A bill had passed the House, supported by a few " Democratic," 
and nearly all the Whig votes, making appropriations for the fur- 
ther improvement of rivers and harbors throughout the country. 

That bill came up in course to be acted on in the Senate. Every 
question involved in its passage had been heretofoi*e discussed in 
either House, so as to be perfectly understood from the outset, 
and nothing could be effected by its discussion but the consump- 
tion of time. 

But though a decided majority of the Senate, was of the party 
termed "Democratic," yet that majoi'ity included a number who, 
if this bill were pressed to a final vote, would be impelled by local 
interest or personal conviction to support it, so that such a vote 
would insure its passage; while several "Democratic" Senators, 
representing States deeply interested in the prosecution of these 
improvements, but themselves aspirants to the Presidency, and 
depending on anti-Improvement support, were unwilling to vote 
either for or against, the bill. 

in this dilemma, an understanding was had, in caucus, that the 
bill should be talked to death, no matter at what cost. 

In pursuance of this plot, day after day was wasted in time-kill- 
ing talk ; amendment after amendment was moved, merely to 
hang speeches upon ; and even old reports and veto messages sent 



AS A STATESMAN. 353 

to the clerk, to be read through. Nearly all the important busi- 
ness of the session remained unperfected. 

At length, on the last morning of the session, Mr. Clay, on he- 
half of the friends of the hill, rose and said substantially : " Gen- 
tlemen opposite ! We know you can talk this bill to death if you 
will ; and it is understood that you have agreed to do so. 

If this be your determination, tell us so frankly, and I myself will 
move that this subject be laid on the table, and the Appropriation 
bills taken up instead." 

"Wo paused, but no one responded. 

The men who had no scruple as to the deed were ashamed of its 
appearance, or afraid of its responsibility. 

So the debate went on, and the game of staving off was persisted 
in, until four o'clock of the morning after the session should have 
closed, when all hopes of its passage having died out, a majority 
voted to lay the Harbor bill on the table, and proceed with the 
ordinary appropriations which were rushed through somehow by 
noon or a little after. 

Can a party which thus fights Internal Improvement, and 
skulks from responsibility, have any just chaim to be distin- 
guished as Democratic ? 

So with the question of protection to Home Industry. 

I am tolerably acquainted with all that has been urged on behalf 
of the policy known as Free Trade ; but it has never shaken my 
conviction that a tariff of duties, wisely adjusted so as to afford 
both revenue and protection, is essential to the national growth 
and well-being. 

What do we mean by Protection ? 

Simply the restriction of importations of foreign manufactures 
to such an extent that their younger and less hardy American 
rivals may take root and nourish. 

How far do we propose to prosecute this policy? 

Until our country's legitimate wants are supplied by her own 
labor, so far as nature may have interposed no impediment. 

We never proposed, or intended to naturalize here any branch ot 
industry for which nature had indicted a different soil or climate 
than our own, such as the growing of the coffee, or spices, or trop- 
ical fruits ; but wherever nature is as propitious to the produc- 
tion on our own soil as any other, we maintain that self-interest, 
and the interest of labor universally, demand the encouragement 
and fostering of home production, up to that point where each 
production shall be found to equal the home consumption. 

23 



354 HORACE GREELEY 

In other words, we hold it the interest of labor universally, that 
producer and consumer should everywhere be placed in as simple 
and direct relations as possible, so as to relieve them from the 
necessity of paying transportation, and three or four profits upon 
the interchange of their mutual products in different hemispheres, 
when those products might, with as little labor, have been pro- 
duced in the same neighborhood. 

"We contend that in this great work of bringing consumer and 
producer nearer each other, and thus diminishing the cost of a 
factitious commerce, Government has an important and benefi- 
cent function assigned it, which it cannot abjure without gross 
direliction and serious detriment to the public weal. 

Now that Protection, wisely directed, has greatly benefited and 
enriched our own and other countries, I can no more doubt than I 
can my own existence. 

I defy any of its adversaries to point out an instance wherein a 
branch of industry, required for the supply of our own legitimate 
wants, has been naturalized among us by means of Protection, 
where such transfer has not decidedly conduced to the general 
welfai"e of our people. The reason of this is too plain to escape 
the discernment of any who with unprejudiced eyes will attempt 
to see. 

That our cotton, corn, wheat, beef, pork, etc., come cheaper to 
their consumers in this country than they would if we imported 
them, is not more self-evident than that the cloths, silks, wares, 
crockery, etc., which we now import, would cost us less, if made 
on our own soil than they do while imported from Europe. 
For, to make them, whether in Europe or America, requires sub- 
stantially the same amount of labor, which, in either case, must be 
paid for by our farmers, etc., with the fruits of their labor ; but, 
so long as they are made in and imported from Europe, another 
large amount of labor will be required from one class or both 
classes of producers, to pay tho heavy cost of transportation from 
producer to consumer, and to carry back our heavy staples, in 
which the payment must mainly be made. 

It may easily be that the nominal or money price of our wares 
and fabrics shall be lower, while they are mainly produced abroad, 
and yet their real cost be far higher. 

We say, the farmer pays so many dollars for his cloths, his 
wares, his tea and coffee ; but practically he does not pay money, 
but grain or meat, even though he sell the latter for cash, and 
hands that over for his goods. The vital question with him is 
" Under which policy can I buy what I need, not for the least 



AS A STATESMAN. 355 

aoney, but for the least aggregate of my own labor, as applied to 
he improving and tilling of my land ? " and this question the 
aoney-test does not conclusively answer. 

Suppose an Illinois or Wisconsin farmer could supply his annual 
teeds of cloths, wares and groceries for eighty dollars, while we 
iuy them mainly abroad, while it would cost him one hundred to 
my them if produced (under stringent Protection) at home — what 
hen ? 

" Then he saves twenty dollars by striking for free trade," says 
n advocate of that policy. Ah ! no sir ! We have answered quite 
oo hastily, for the change from free trade to Protection inevita- 
bly brings markets for his own products nearer and nearer to his 
arm, increasing their cash value, and extending his range of profit- 
able production. 

With free trade and "our work-shops in Europe," he had no 
hoice but to grow wheat and cattle for exportation, and to take 
uch prices for them as the competition of all the world in the 
pen markets of Great Britain would allow, less the cost of trans- 
foration from his farm to Liverpool ; but let Protection supplant 
ree trade, and now he begins to feel the stimulus of near and 
tearer markets urging him to produce other articles far more 
irofitable than wheat-growing for the English market. 

Should a manufactory of any kind be established within a few 
ailes of him, he finds there a market for wood, vegetables, poul- 
ry, veal, fresh butter, hay, etc., etc., at prices much better than he 
ould have obtained while we were buying our goods in Europe ; 
is labor produces more animal, value ; his farm is worth more 
ban it was or could be while we were dependent on Europe for a 
narket. Many things are now turned off from his farm at good 
•rices, which had no money value, while an ocean rolled between 
iim and his market ; he becomes thrifty and buys more, far more 
han formerly, because he is able to buy far more. 

Instead of one or two hundred dollars' worth of wheat or pork 
o sell at one particular season, he is turning off a hundred dollars' 
forth of milk, fruit, timber, vegetables, etc., each month, keeping 
mt of debt at the store and elsewhere, and laying up money. 

He improves his buildiugs, and thus gives a job to his neighbor, 
he carpenter ; he fills up his house with furniture, to the satisfac- 
ion of his neighbor, the cabinet-maker ; he sends his children to a 
eminary, and thus increases the income of the teacher. 

On every side, the farmer's prosperity overflows, and conducts 
o the prosperity of his townsmen. And the basis of all 
his is the fact that, by a benignant policy, adequate mar- 



356 HORACE GREELEY 

kets have been brought nearer his doors, whereby he receives 
eighty or ninety instead of forty or fifty per cent, of what 
the consumer of his products pays for them, and is enabled advan- 
tageously to grow many articles which, with our work-shops in 
Europe must have rotted on his hands, had he grown them. 

Every dollar thus saved in the expense of needless transporta- 
tion, by drawing the manufacturers nearer and nearer to the side 
of the former, is a new stimulus to production, and the hundred 
acres which gave scanty employment as herdsmen and wheat- 
growers to two or three hands, afford ample employment for a 
dozen to twenty, when, by reason of the neighborhood of manu- 
factories, wheat and grass have been in great part supplanted by 
gardens, fruit and vegetables. 

There is no more mystery in the increase of production and 
prosperity under a judiciously directed Protective policy, than in 
the fact that a team immediately before a wagon will draw a 
heavier load than it would if fastened forty rods ahead of the load. 

Protection diverts labor from non-productive to productive 
employments — that is the whole story. 

By diversifying industry, it calls into active exercise a wider 
range of capacities, and develops powers which would otherwise 
have lain dormant and unsuspected. Thousands who, in a com- 
munity wholly agricultural, or wholly manufacturing, would find 
nothing to do, are satisfactorily employed, are remunerated where 
diverse pursuits are being prosecuted all around them. 

Protection and Internal Improvement work from opposite direc- 
tions to one common end — namely, the diminution of expense in 
the transportation from producer to consumer. Protection aims 
to bring the consumer, wherever this may be practicable, to the 
side of the producer ; Internal Improvement essays, where that is 
not practicable, to bring the product from the latter to the former 
at the least possible cost. 

Now there was a time, when out of the narrow circle of import- 
ing influence, these truths were admitted and acted upon by the 
whole American people — at least, throughout the Free States. 

Nobody pretended that Protection was anti-Democratic fifty, 
forty, thirty, or even twenty-five years ago. 

On the contrary, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, then ranked 
among the most "Democratic" States, were the earliest and most 
decided champions of Protection, throughout the earlier decades 
of the struggle. 

Gen. Jackson, when a candidate for President, and even after he 
had been ti'ansformed from a " Federal into the Democratic " can- 



AS A STATESMAN. 357 

didate, was vaunted by his friends a sturdy Protectionist. His let- 
ter to Dr. Coleman, of North Carolina, was repeatedly published 
to sustain the claim. 

The tariff of 1828 (the highest and most protective we have 
ever had) was framed by a Jackson Committee, passed by a Jack- 
son Congress, and boasted of as a Jackson measure. 

Party exigencies, and the supposed necessity of retaining the 
good will of the cotton-growing interest, have since veered " the 
party " completely off the Protective track, but it is none the less 
essentially "Democratic" on that account. Men are mutable, but 
principles are eternal. 

Protection is just as Democratic to-day, as if it had been en- 
dorsed and commended by five regiments of ravenous office-seek- 
ers, styling themselves Democratic National Conventions. 

4. There underlies the practical politics of our time and country 
a Radical diversity of sentiment respecting the appropriate sphere 
of government. 

On the one hand, Republican government is regarded as the 
natural friend and servant of the people, whose proper function it 
is to lighten their burdens, to increase their faculties of inter- 
course or intelligence, and to contribute in all practicable way to 
their progress, comfort and happiness. 

On the other, government is regarded with jealousy and dis- 
trust, as an enemy to be watched, an evil to be restricted within 
the narrowest limits. 

The mottoes of this latter school are significant ; " the world is 
governed too much" — " the best Government is that which gov- 
erns least," — "laessez /aire (let us alone,)" etc., etc. 

Now these maxims seem to me unwisely transferred from gov- 
ernments directed by despots, to governments controlled by and 
existing for the people. 

They are nowhere recognized by the Democracy of Europe, 
which plainly contemplates the institution of governments more 
pervasive and efficient than the world has yet known, free educa- 
tion, insurance by the State, the right to labor — these are but a 
part of the ideas of like tendency, which the European Democracy 
stands ready to realize whenever it shall have the power. 

Its policy is constructive, creative, and beneficent, while that of 
our self-styled " Democracy " is repulsive, chilling, nugatory — a 
bundle of negations, restrictions, and abjurations. 

Can there be a rational doubt as to which of these is the true 
Democracv ? 



358 HORACE GREELEY 

Who does not see that the fundamental ideas of our party De- 
mocracy are as radically hostile to common schools, and to tax- 
sustained common roads, as to a protective tariff, a national 
Bank, or to the national improvement of our rivers and harbors, 
if it dare hut follow where its principals lead ? 

5. There is another point on which I must speak frankly ; and I 
ask you not to take offense at, hut earnestly ponder it. 

You and I prefer the society and counsel of those who walk, so 
far as we may judge, in the ways of virtue, to that of the reckless, 
ostentatious servators of vice. 

You, I am confident, will not stigmatize this preference as aris- 
tocratic, nor seek to confound poverty with vice, in the paltry 
hope of making capital out of the natural indignation of the 
former. 

The great city of my residence is, pei^haps, a fair sample politi- 
cally of the whole country — its parties almost equal in numbers, 
and each composed of rich and poor, native and foreign born, in- 
formed and ignorant. 

Doubtless, the great mass, of whatever pai'ty, sincerely desire 
the public welfare ; doubtless, rogues and libertines are to be 
found in the ranks of each of the great parties. 

But point wherever you please to an election district which you 
will pronounce morally rotten — given up in great part to debauch- 
ery and vice, whose voters subsist mainly hy keeping policy- 
offices, gambling-houses, grog-shops, and darken dens of infamy — 
and that district will be found at nearly or quite every election, 
giving a large majority for that which styles itself the "Demo- 
cratic" party. 

Thus, the "Five Points" is the most "Democratic" district of 
our city ; "The Hook" follows not very far behind it, and so on. 

Take all the haunts of debauchery in the land, and you will find 
nine-tenths of their master spirits active partisans of that same 
" Democracy." "What is the instinct, the sympathetic cord, which 
attaches them so uniformly to this party? Will you consider? 

Democracy is, I know full well, a word of power. I know that 
it has a charm for the hopeful, the generous, the lowly and the 
aspiring, as well as for many darker spirits. 

I know that he who aspires to influence, office and honors, 
rather than to usefulness and an approving conscience, will 
naturally be led to enlist under its banner, often drugging his 
moral sense with the sophistry that he who would do good must 
put himself in a position where the power to do good will most 
probably attach to him. 



AS A STATESMAN. 359 

But I know also that names must lose their potency, as intelli- 
gence shall be diffused more and move widely. 

I know that to be truly Democratic is of more importance than 
to win and wear the advantages connected with the name. 

Of that Democracy which labors to protect the feeble, and up- 
lift the fallen, I will endeavor not to be wholly destitute, while of 
that which claims a monopoly of office and honors as the due re- 
ward of its devotion to equality, I am content to be adjudged 
lacking. 

Of that Democracy which robs the effeminate Mexican of half 
his broad domains, and regards with a covetous eye the last of de- 
clining Spain's valuable possessions — which plants its heel on the 
neck of the abject and powerless negro, and hurls its axe after the 
flying form of the plundered, homeless and desolate Indian — may 
it be written on my grave that I never was a follower, and lived 
and died in nothing its debtor ! 

My friend, I think you now understand what are my political 
convictions, and why I cherish them. 

If they differ widely from yours, I can but hope that time and 
reflection may bring us nearer together, and that in whatever your 
views are humaner, more conducive to general well-being, 
more truly Democratic than mine, I shall learn of you, and become 
filled with your wisdom, and imbued with your spirit. 

That our common country may discern and follow that path 
which leads through truth and right to prosperity and enduring 
greatness is ever the prayer of 

Yours truly, 

Horace Greeley. 

New York, Oct. 1st, 1851. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the introduction of 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, opened up, in and out of Congress, a 
new and extended field of political discussion, in which Mr. Gkee- 
LEY took an active and earnest part. 

After a long discussion of the subjects of freedom and slavery, 
the doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty in the Territories and 
the final repeal of the Missouri Compromise, by the passage of the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, Stephen A. Douglas published in the Sep- 
tember number, 1859, of Harper's Monthly Magazine, a cel- 
ebrated article, entitled: " The dividing line between Federal and 
Local authority, and popular sovereignty in the Territories." Mr. 



360 HORACE GREELEY 

Greeley had scarcely more than returned home from California, 
■when the article appeared ; and as no one else in the country made 
a reply to Douglas, Mr. Greeley at once tackled him, and replied 
in the Tribune, with masterly ability, as follows : 

HISTORY VINDICATED — A LETTER TO THE HON. STEPHEN A. 
DOUGLAS, ON HIS HARPER ESSAY. 

Mr. Senator: — Your late magazine article, on "Popular Sov- 
ereignty in the Territories," has already received adequate atten- 
tion. That it lias failed to conciliate opponents, hut has rather in- 
creased their numbers and confirmed their resolution, is now evi- 
dent. It has had this result, both at the North and at the South, 
and for a very intelligible reason. Most of the American people, 
who have any purpose whatever, earnestly desire, either that slav- 
ery should or should not be enabled to diffuse itself through the 
Federal Territories, growing with the growth, and heing strength- 
ened with the strength of the American Republic. Very few are 
indifferent to this overshadowing issue ; few, except professional 
politicians, even affect to be. 

You preach, therefore, the gospel of indifference of negation, of 
impotence, to mainly unwilling cars. I cannot feel, in reading your 
incubration, that you believe it yourself. Think me not uncharita- 
ble, but answer to yourself, this question — Suppose you wore offi- 
cially apprised that a majority of the Squatter Sovereigns of one 
of our Territories — we will say Utah, for example — had voted that 
the minority should be reduced to and held in slavery, for the ben- 
efit, and in the service of such majority, and had proceeded to en- 
force that determination by fire and sword — would you, as a Sen- 
ator, hesitate to decide and declare that this rapacious, iniquitous 
purpose must be resisted and defeated by the poAver of the Federal 
Government? I know you would not. You would, in that case, 
inevitably recognize and affirm the duty of Congress to maintain 
justice in the Territories — to protect every innocent man in the 
peaceful enjoyment of the fair rewards of his own industry, and in 
the possession and enjoyment of liberty, family and honestly ac- 
quired property. The matter is too plain for argument, too cer- 
tain for doubt. If, then, you uphold the right of some men to hold 
others as slaves in the Territories, you do it on the assumption 
that those ought to be master'-, and these, slaves — that the slave- 
laws of Virginia or Texas, have rightful force and effect in Kansas 
or New Mexico — or on some other ground than the naked assump- 
tion of "Popular Sovereignty in the Territories." That, you must 



AS A STATESMAN. 361 

allow me to tell you, is but a politician's dodge, devised in 1848 by 
Gen. Cass, under the spur of a pressing danger, an urgent necessi- 
ty, and only accepted by them who discern a means of escape from 
similar perils — a handy neck-yoke, to enable them to carry water 
on both shoulders. The Sovereignty you defer to, is that of a po- 
litical necessity, not that of the people of the Territories. 

But I do not propose to traverse all the logical subtleties and 
hair-splitting distinctions of your late elaborate essay. I did, in- 
deed, at one time cherish a strong desire to reply to it at length, 
through the pages of the magazine, which gave it to the world ; 
but, on intimating that purpose to its editor, I was denied a hear- 
ing in his columns, though it was graciously intimated that a sim- 
ilar demand from one of the " leading Republicans " might perhaps 
be favorably considered. Of course, that puts me out of Court ; but 
whom does it let in ? I cannot tell. Republicans are rather unused 
to being led, hence, a natural scarcity of Republican leaders. Gov. 
Seward, to whom you seem willing to accord the character of a 
leader, is known to be absent in Europe, and not likely to return 
for two months yet; so is Mr. Sumner; other "leading Republi- 
cans " are hardly within easy reach of the documents, essential to 
your systematic refutation. 

Yet it seems to me important, that your misstatement of fact 
should be clearly exposed, even though the task should devolve on 
one so far from being a leader. Though the pages of the Harper 
are shut agaiust me, those who have read your monstrous perver- 
sions of history, will never see their exposure, I am impelled to un- 
dertake the task, confining myself strictly to the historical features 
of your essay. 

Your fundamental proposition is this, "The genius and spirit of 
our free institutions plainly require that the people of a Territory 
should be enabled and encouraged to establish and maintain human 
slavery on the soil of such Territory, if they see fit." 

The Republicans deny this, insisting that no Government has any 
right to deprive innocent human beings of their liberty, accounting 
and holding them the mere chattels of others. They deny the right 
of any Territorial Government to establish or uphold such slavery, 
insisting that Congress is in duty bound to prohibit and prevent 
any such injustice in the Territories, which are common domain of 
the whole American people. On this main question, we are utterly 
irreconcilably at variance. I do not propose to argue it, or review 
your arguments upon it. But you proceed to assert, and to 
make history uphold your assertion, that your doctrine is that of 
the Revolutionary fathers — that the Revolution was made in its 



362 HORACE GREELEY 

behalf— that it Avas paramount in the earlier and purer days of the 
Republic. On this point I take issue, and appeal to the indubita- 
ble records. Here is their testimony : 

The IXth Continental Congress, under the articles of Confedera- 
tion, assembled at Philadelphia, Nov. 3, 1783, but adjourned next 
day to Annapolis, Md., where it was to have re-convened on the 
26th, but a quorum was not obtained until Dec. 13, and the at- 
tendance continued so meager, that no important business was 
taken up until Jan. 13, 1784. The treaty of Independence and 
Peace with Great Britian, was unanimously ratified on the 14th — 
nine States represented. The House was soon left without a quo- 
rum, and so continued most of the time — of course, doing no busi- 
ness — till the 1st of March, when the delegates from Virginia, in 
pursuance of instructions from the Legislature of that State, signed 
the conditional deed of cession to the Confederation of her claims 
to territory north-west of the Ohio river. New York, Connecticut 
and Massachusetts had already made similar concessions to the 
Confederation of their respective claims to territory westward of 
their present limits. 

Congress hereupon appointed Messrs. Jefferson of Virginia, 
Chase of Maryland, and Howell of Rhode Island, a select Commit- 
tee, to report a plan of government for the western territory. This 
plan, drawn up by Thomas Jefferson, provided for the government 
of all the western Territory, including that portion which had not 
yet been, but which, it was reasonable to expect, would be surren- 
dered to the Confederation, by the States of North Carolina and 
Georgia (and which now forms the States of Tennessee, Alabama 
and Mississippi), as well as that which had already been conceded 
by the more northern States. All this territory, acquired and as 
yet unacquired, Mr. Jefferson and his associates, on this select Com- 
mittee, proposed to divide into seventeen prospective, or new (em- 
bryo) States, to each of which the Report gave a name, eight of 
them being situated below the parallel of the falls of Ohio, (Louis- 
ville, Ky.,) and nine above that parallel — which is very near the 
boundary between the present Free and Slave States. To all these 
embryo or new States, the Committee proposed to apply this re- 
striction : 

That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall be neith- 
er slavery, nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, oth- 
erwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the said party 
shall have been convicted to be personally guilty. 

April 19 this reported plan came up for consideration in Con- 
gress. Mr. Spaight of N. C, moved that the above-quoted passage 



AS A STATESMAN. 



363 



be stricken out of the plan or ordinance, and Mr. Seed, of S. C, 
seconded the motion. The question was put in this form : " Shall 
the words moved to he stricken out, stand?" And on this ques- 
tion, the ays and nays were taken, and resulted as follows : 



New Hampshire, 
u u 

Massachusetts, 
tt u 

Rhode Island, 
u u 

Connecticut, 

tt ft 

New York, 

tt a 

New Jersey, 

Pennsylvania, 
it 

tt 

Maryland, 
a 

Virginia, 

li 

it 

North Carolina, 
u a 

South Carolina, 



Mr. Foster, 
Mr. Blauchard, 
Mr. Gerry, 
Mr. Partridge, 
Mr. Ellery, 
Mr. Howell, 
Mr. Sherman, 
Mr. Wadsworth, 
Mr. De Witt, 
Mr. Paine, 
Mr. Dick, 
Mr. Mifflin, 
Mr. Montgomery, 
Mr. Hand, 
Mr. McHenry, 
Mr. Stone, 
Mr. Jefferson, 
Mr. Hardy, 
Mr. Mercer, 
Mr. "Williamson, 
Mr. Spaight, 
Mr. Reed, 
" " Mr. Beresford, 

Here we find the votes sixteen in favor of Mr. Jeffei'son's restric- 
tion, to barely seven against it, and the States divided six in favor 
to three against it. But the Articles of Confederation (Art. IX,) 
required an affirmative vote of a majority of all the States — that is, 
a vote of seven States — to carry a proposition ; so this clause was 
defeated through the absence of one delegate from New Jersey, in 
spite of a vote of more than two to one in its favor. Had the New 
Jersey delegation been full, it must, to a moral certainty, have pre- 
vailed ; had Delaware been then represented, it would probably 
have carried, even without New Jersey. Yet it is of this vote so 
given and recorded, but by you suppressed, that you say, in your 
account of the action of Congress on the bill, after amplifying on the 
ordinance as it passed, and claiming it as an endorsement of your 
views : 

The fifth Article, which relates to the prohibition of slavery, af- 
ter the year 1800, having been rejected by Congress, never became 



ay 

ay 

ay 
ay 
ay 
ay 
ay 
ay 
ay 
ay 
ay-no quorum. 

ay 
ay 
ay 
no 
no 
ay 
no 
no 

ay 

no-divided. 

no 

no. 



364 HORACE GREELEY 

a part of the Jeffersonian plan of government for the Territories, as 
adopted April 23, 1784. Is this a statesman's reading of American 
History, for the instruction and guidance of his countrymen ? It 
certainly reminds me strongly of a hlackleg turning up the knave 
from the hottom or middle of his pack, as though it came from 
the top. Who could not prove anything he wished hy such unscru- 
pulous manipulation of his authorities? 

But there is no denying the fact that the last Continental Con- 
gress — that of 1787 — did unanimously pass Nathan Dane's Ordi- 
nance, for the Government of the Territory north-west of the 
Ohio, wherehy slavery is peremtorily excluded from said Territo- 
ry, in the following terms : 

There shall he neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the 
said Territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof 
the parties shall he duly convicted. 

How do you get along with this ? I will quote your very words. 
You are seeming to argue that hy the term " States," or "new 
States," the Congress of that day often implied what we now des- 
ignate as Territories, and you say : 

The word States, is used in the same sense in the Ordinance of 
the 13th July, 1787, for the government of the territory north- 
west of the river Ohio, which was passed hy the remnant of the 
Congress of the Confederation, sitting in New York, while its most 
eminent members were at Philadelphia, as delegates to the Federal 
Convention, aiding in the formation of the Constitution of the 
United States. 

Let us see about this : You give us your bare word for this belit- 
tling and setting aside of the Congress of 1787, as a mere " rem- 
nant." There may be those with whom your assertion suffices, 
but I prefer to look at the record. 

The Ordinance of 1787, just referred to, and containing the inhi- 
bition of slavery, quoted above, passed Congress on the 13th of 
July ; and, on recurring to the journals, I find the vote on its pas- 
sage, recorded as follows : 

Massachusetts, Mr. Hoi ten, ay 

" Mr. Dane, ay 

New York, Mr. Smith, ay 

" " Mr. Haring, ay 

" " Mr. Yates, no 

New Jersey, Mr. Clark, ay 

" " Mr. Scheurman, ay 

Delaware, Mr. Kearney, ay 

" Mr. Mitchell, ay 



AS A STATESMAN. 365 

Virginia, Mr. Grayson, ay 

" Mr. Richard Henry Lee, ay 

" Mr. Covington, ay 

North Carolina, Mr. Blount, ay 

" " Mr. Hawkins, ay 

South Carolina, Mr. Kean, ay 

" " Mr. Huger, ay 

Georgia, Mr. Few, ay 

" Mr. Baldwin, ay 

Here was Virginia and every State south of her represented, and 
voting. Voting unanimously ay. The only negative vote cast, 
came from New York. It is quite true that New Hampshire, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland were not 
represented on this vote ; hut the first four of them had unani- 
mously voted to sustain Mr. Jefferson's original restriction, and no 
man can douht that they would have voted in 1787, as they did in 
1784, now that even the Carolinas and Georgia had come over to 
the support of the policy of Restriction. The memhers ahsent 
from their seats in order to attend the sittings of the Convention 
at Philadelphia, were Rufus King and Nathaniel Gorham of Massa- 
chusetts, William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, Mr. Madison 
of Virginia, and C. Pinckney of South Carolina, and possihly one 
or two others, whose names I have not detected — for I can find no 
list of the members of the Congress, save as I pick it up from page 
to page of the journal, as they severally dropped in from day to 
day. That a few memhers of this Congress were transferred to seats 
in the Convention, is true ; hut in no single instance was a State 
left by such transfer, unrepresented in Congress, nor is there a 
shadow of reason for supposing that the slavery Inhibition, embod- 
ied in the glorious Ordinance, would have been struck out or mod- 
ified, had no Convention been sitting. What becomes, then, of 
your sneer at " the remnant of the Congress ?" 

Here, then, we have two distinct declarations, by overwhelming 
majorities of the Continental Congress, in favor of the principle 
of slavery Inhibition — the first, by more than two to one, (though 
not enough to carry it under the Articles of Confederation.) Acting 
under the lead of Thomas Jefferson, backed by such men as Elbridge 
Gerry, and Rodger Sherman, assembled directly after the close of 
the Revolution, and while New York was still held by a British 
army ; the second,. by a vote of eight States to none in the last con- 
federated or Continental Congress, sitting in New York simulta- 
neously with the Convention which framed our present Federal 
Constitution, at Philadelphia. Here are two explicit affirmations 



366 HORACE GREELEY 

by the Revolutionary Fathers, of the right and duty of Congres- 
sional Inhibition of slavery in the Territories. Can there be any 
honest doubt as to their views on the subject? 

But the Federal Constitution was framed and adopted : perhaps 
this abolished or modified the power over slavery in the Territo- 
ries, claimed and exercised by the Continental Congress. Certainly, 
the presumption is strongly the other way ; for the Constitution 
was framed to strengthen, not weaken, the Federal authority. 
Let us again consult the records : 

The first Federal Congress convened at New York, March 4, 
1789 ; of its members, the following had been also members of the 
Convention which had just before framed the Federal Constitu- 
tion : 

From New Hampshire — John Langdon and Nicholas Gilman. 

From Massachusetts — Elbridge Gerry and Caleb Strong. 

From Connecticut — Wm. Sam'l Johnson, Rodger Sherman and 
Oliver Ellsworth. 

From New York — Rufus King — Elected to the Convention from 
Massachusetts. 

From New Jersey — "William Patcrson. 

From Pennsylvania — Robert Morris, George Clymer and Thomas 
Fitzsimons. 

From Delaware — George Read and Richard Bassett. 

From Maryland — Daniel Carroll. 

From Virginia — James Madison, jr. 

From Georgia — "Wm. Few and Abr'm Baldwin. 

In this first Congress, under the Federal Constitution, composed 
in large measure, of the most eminent of the framers of that Con- 
stitution, Mr. Fitzsimons of Pennsylvania, (himself a member also 
of the Convention,) reported (July 16, '89,) a bill to provide for the 
government of the territory north-west of the Ohio, which was then 
read a first time ; the next day had its second reading, and was com- 
mitted ; on the 20th, was considered in Committee of the whole, 
reported and engrossed ; and on the 21st read a third time, and 
passed without dissent. It was received that day in the Senate, 
and had its first reading ; was read a second time on the 31st ; was 
further considered August 3d : and had its third reading next day, 
when it passed, without a voice raised against it. 

As you do not seem to have heard of this act, allow me to quote 
it. It is a good deal shorter and sweeter than your Nebraska bill, 
and refers to the same subject. Here it is : 

An Act to provide for the government of the territory north-west 
of the river Ohio : 



AS A STATESMAN. 367 

Whereas, In order that the Ordinance of the United States, in 
Congress assembled, for the government of the territory north- 
west of the river Ohio, may continue to have full effect, it is re- 
quisite that certain provisions be made, so as to adapt the same to 
the present Constitution of the United States : 

Be it enacted, etc., That in all cases in which, by the said Ordi- 
nance, any information is to be given, or communication made by 
the Governor of said Territory, to the United States, in Congress 
assembled, or to any of their officers, it shall be the duty of said 
Governor to give such information, and to make such communica- 
tion to the President of the United States ; and the President shall 
nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
shall appoint all officers, which, by the said Ordinance, were to 
have been appointed by the United States, in Congress assembled, 
and all officers so appointed, shall be commissioned by him, and 
in all cases where the United States, in Congress assembled, might, 
by the said Ordinance, revoke any commission, or remove from any 
office, the President is hereby declared to have the same powers of 
revocation and removal. 

2. And be it further enacted, That in case of the death, removal, 
resignation or necessary absence of the Governor of said Territo- 
ry, the Secretary thereof shall be, and he is hereby, authorized and 
required to execute all the powers, and perform all the duties of 
the Governor, during the vacancy occasioned by the removal, res- 
ignation or necessary absence of the said Governor. 

Approved Aug. 7, 1789. 

Geo. "Washington. 

Are you reading, Mr. Senator? Here is the act passed by the 
first Congress, under the Federal Constitution — James Madison, 
Eodger Sherman, Eufus King, Elbridge Gerry, John Langdon, 
Robert Morris, and other eminent members of the Constitutional 
Convention, being also members of this Congress — to give full ef- 
fect to the Ordinance of '87, and to adapt it to the Federal Consti- 
tution — not one voice being raised from any quarter, against either 
the avowed purpose or the special provisions of the act. Do you 
doubt that Washington, Madison, Gerry, Sherman, etc., understood 
the Constitution which they had framed scarcely two years before ? 
This, at least, was no " remnant of a Congress." Its members were 
not absent from their seats, concocting a new Constitution. Why, 
then, in giving what purports to be a history of the action of Con- 
gress on this subject, do you ignore them, and their act of '89 ? 
Are they beyond even your power of manipulation ? 

Yet once more, and I leave you to your reflections. The matter 



368 HORACE GREELEY 

on which we are at variance, is no vague abstraction, but a grave 
practicality. Indiana Territory, embracing the State you now rep- 
resent, and all else between the Ohio and Mississippi, except the 
State of Ohio, early evinced dissatisfaction with the slavery Inhi- 
bition, embodied in the Ordinance of '87, and kept in force under 
the act of '89. Her former settlers were nearly all immigrants from 
slave States, and they hankered after negroes. They held a Con- 
vention in 1802 — Gen'l Harrison, their Governor, presiding — and 
memorialized Congress in favor of a temporary removal of the sla- 
very Inhibition. That memorial was presented to the Congress of 
1802-3, Mr. Jefferson being then President, and Congress largely 
Republican, it was referred by the House, to a select Committee 
of three, two of them from the slave States, John Randolph being 
Chairman. March 2, 1803, Mr. Randolph presented their unani- 
mous report, denying the prayer of the petitioners, and saying 
that 

The Committee deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to 
impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the happiness and 
prosperity of the north-western country, &c, &c. 

Congress thought so too, and refrained from any action on the 
subject. 

The next year,, the memorial aforesaid was referred to a new 
committee — Cfleser Rodney, of Delaware, Chairman — who, (Feb. 
17, 1804,) reported in favor of the prayer of the petitioners. No 
use! the House took no action on the subject. February 14, 1806, 
another report was made — this time by Mr. Garnett, of Virginia— 
in favor of the temporary suspension prayed for ; but Congress 
persisted in its policy of non-actiou. February 12, 1807, a third 
report was made by Mr. Parke, (Delegate) of Indiana, in favor of 
letting the Squatter Sovereigns of Indiana Territory have liberty 
to hold slaves therein for a limited term ; but Congress still de- 
clined to take the subject up for consideration. Finally a memor- 
ial of the Territorial Legislature of Indiana, asking permission to 
import and temporarily hold slaves, was submitted, January 21, 
1807, to the Senate, by which it was referred (Nov. 7) to a select 
committee, of which Mr. Franklin, of North Carolina, was Chair- 
man, who reported (Nov. 13) that " it is not expedient " to let 
upon the Slavery restriction, and there the subject rested forever. 
The Indiana Sovereigns by this time became sick or ashamed of 
their negro-begging — Why is it, Mr. Douglas, that we find no 
allusion to these efforts to evade or subvert the ordinance of '87, 
and their uniform failure, in your resume of the history of this 
subject ? Why, but because the facts are at deadly feud with your 
theory, and prove it the novel heresy it truly is ? 



AS A STATESMAN. 369 

There were statesmen in Congress in 1802-7, who would gladly 
have procured a repeal or suspension of the Ordinance of '87, so 
far a it forbade the extension of slavery ; but there was not one — ■ 
so far as I can discover — who denied the right of Congress to pre- 
clude such extention. The doctrine which denies to Congress 
the right to inhibit slavery in the Territories had its origin in the 
perplexities of a presidential aspirant, no longer ago than 1848. 
"When office-seekers cease to have special need of it, it will die 
the death of the humbugs, and be buried in their open grave. 

You speak of the antagonistic doctrine which confides the guar- 
dianship of impartial freedom in the Territories of the United 
States to the whole people as represented in the Congress of the 
United States rather than to the few thousands of their number 
who first gain a footing on these Territories as strife-breeding, 
feud-inciting, as between diverse sections of the Union. History 
does not sustain that imputation. The Ordinance of '87, and the 
Missouri restriction successively secured to the country long 
terms of comparative l'est from slavery agitation. The Nebraska 
bill has given us — what you see. It has distracted not merely the 
country, but the Democratic party. Even you give three several 
interpretations of the spirit and drift of that act, and of the ''Pop- 
ular Sovereignty " which it embodies, as held by different sections 
of that body. Mr. Senator, allow me to say in conclusion, that of 
these diverse interpretations yours seems to me the most unsatis- 
factory and irritating. I comprehend, I word with a certain re- 
spect, the fire-eater who tells me " The Constitution guarantees 
me the right of taking slaves into the Territories, and holding 
them there ; I demand of Congress such legislation as will ren- 
der that right impregnable." I trust he comprehends and re- 
spects me when I respond : " The Constitution gives you no right 
to carry slavery into the Territories ; therefore, I shall endeavor 
to keep it out, and will favor no such legislation as you require ; " 
but how can either of us respect you — how can you respect vour- 
self — when you say in effect : " True, you slave-holders have a 
right to fill the Territories with your slaves ; but the Squatter 
Sovereigns may nullify that right by ' unfriendly legislation,' and 
you are without remedy." Mr. Senator, whenever 1 realize that 
the slave-holders have a constitutional right to carry their human 
chattels into the Territories, and hold them there, I will respect 
that right in its legitimate scope and spirit, and not attempt to 
whittle it away, as you do in your comments on the Dred Scott 
decision. The topic is a grave one ; the time is earnest ; the peo- 



24 



370 HORACE GREELEY 

pie intent on facts, and in no mood to be amused or cajoled by 
mere words. 

I think you misconceive alike topic, time and people, to your 
own serious damage. 

Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 

During the late Rebellion, new questions of government and 
politics, of every conceivable kind, came up for discussion. The 
nation was thrust into an experience, unknown to her people, and 
unprovided for by her laws. And, with enemies within and 
without, the friends of the Union were compelled to confront all 
manner of opposing arguments and questions, which tested all the 
ability and mind of the loyal people, as well as the arms of the 
soldiers of the Union. During all that bitter contest, no heart 
beat true to the Union, nor was there any hand more willing to 
work for its triumph over Rebellion, than Mr. Greeley's. He 
was ever on the alert with his pen, to attach the enemy, or en- 
courage the friends of the Union. Probably, there was no ques- 
tion during the whole trouble, that seemed to be so difficult of so- 
lution, as that involved in the status of the border States. They 
had not really gone into Rebellion, and yet treason and loyalty 
were struggling in blood and fire upon the soil of each of them, 
and State officials denying the right of United States troops to 
occupy or cross over their soil. 

It was at the beginning of this conflict of authority and law, 
when new questions were arising daily, for discussion and solu- 
tion, that Mr. Greeley addressed, through the Tribune of 
January 7, 1861, the following able letter to Kentucky's then 
greatest living statesman, upon 

THE ATTITUDE OF THE NORTH. 

To the Ho7i. John J. Crittenden, U. 8. Senate: 

Dear Sir: — The people of the Free States observe and appreci- 
ate your efforts to reconcile what are improperly termed " section- 
al" differences, and maintain the integrity of the Union. They do 
not doubt your sincerity nor your patriotism. They l'ealize that, 
even when you most wronged yourself in upholding the policy em- 



AS A STATESMAN. 371 

bodied in the Nebraska bill, and the consequent dragooning of the 
free settlers of Kansas with intent to bend their necks to the yoke 
of slavery, you yielded to a local ignorance and predjudice which 
you could not control, and which, because you would not minister 
unreservedly to its wild exactions, has consigned you to private 
life after the 4th of March next. They make due allowance for the 
ferocity of the pro-slavery fanaticism which has thus ostracised 
you, and leniently judge that, though a bolder man might have 
done better, an average man would have done worse ; and they are 
not ungrateful for your honest and earnest efforts to save the Union 
from disruption, and the country from the horrors of civil war. 
They feel sure that, were the people of the Slave States in the av- 
erage as enlightened and as just as you are, the dangers now im- 
pending might be dispelled or averted. Nevertheless, they do not 
and will not assent to the compromise proposed by you — that is a 
fixed fact. Here and there one who never shared their convictions, 
but only affected them, in order to get himself elected to some high 
office, or who owns real estate in Washington city, and feels that it 
is likely to be ruined by disunion, or who has a great railroad con- 
tract in Missouri or some other Slave State, and may be broken by 
the depreciation of that State's bonds, or who is a lame duck in the 
stock market, and hopes to win back all he has lost and more with 
it if a compromise can be fixed up, may accede to your project, or 
to something equivalent ; but ninety-nine of every hundred Repub- 
licans are opposed to any such bargain, and will not be concluded 
by it if made. Moreover, thousands of Democrats and of Conser- 
vatives who stood with you on the platform of " The Union, the 
Constitution, and the enforcement of the Laws," are also opposed 
to any such arrangement while the Federal authority is defied and 
the Union threatened with subversion. Let me briefly set forth 
the reasons which unite the North in resistance to any compromise 
at present : 

I. One State to-day is in open rebellion against the Federal au- 
thority ; others are preparing to follow her immediately. Federal 
arsenals and forts, containing great numbers of cannon, many thou- 
sand stand of arms, and great quantities of military stores, have 
been siezed, and are now held by the insurgents, not in South Car- 
olina only, but in Georgia, Alabama, and I believe other Slave 
States which have not yet declared themselves out of the Union. 
The slender Federal garrison of the forts in Charleston harbor is 
this hour in peril of destruction by an overwhelming Rebel force, 
and not only its commander, but the President of the United States 
i6 railed at and defamed, because that commander has concentrated 



372 HORACE GREELEY 

his three or four score soldiers in that fortress where they can hold 
out longest and sell their lives most dearly. The Federal Custom 
House at Charleston has been turned over to the State, and the late 
U. S. Collector assumes to clear vessels on the authority of the na- 
tion of South Carolina. That pseudo nation assumes to he out of 
the Union, withdraws her members from Congress, and sends em- 
bassadors to Washington as to a foreign capital. In view of these 
high handed proceedings, and the scarcely dissembled menaces that 
all the Federal forts in the South will soon be seized by the dis^in- 
ionists, and the inauguration of Lincoln at Washington on the 4th 
of March next, prevented by an insurgent force, the people of the 
Free States very naturally repel any compromise that will enable 
these Rebels to boast that they have frightened or backed down the 
North. We are wo £ frightened hereabouts; we do not feel a bit 
sorry for what we have done ; and we do not capitulate with trai- 
tors. If, then, what you propose were inherently admissible, we 
could not assent to it now. 

II. I need not tell you that what you propose (the line of 36 deg. 
and 30 min., with free course to slavery below it,) has been thrice 
jffered to and thrice rejected by the Free States. We deem it un- 
lair on many grounds, but conspicuously because, when Louisiana, 
Florida and Texas were successively acquired, the fact that they 
were previously slaveholding was relied on to bar any demand that 
hey should henceforth be even half free ; and we insist that the 
rule which gave them to Slavery now consecrates New Mexico and 
Arizona to Freedom. You would not expect Republicans to vote 
tor your project if there were no threats and no danger of disunion 
ir violent resistance to Mr. Lincoln's rule ; and you must not hope 
; o extort from our fears what you could not expect us to concede 
rom a sense of justice. You do not mean to degrade us, but your 

proposition, if accepted, would have that effect ; and you must al- 
low us to judge what is due to our own honor. 

III. Your friends in the Slave States do not talk right. Take the 
following samples from the resolves of a Union meeting held on 
the 1st inst., in your own city of Frankfort, Kentucky, and ad- 
dressed by your friend, Gen. Combs : 

" 8th. That the resolutions of compromise submitted by Mr. Crit- 
tenden in the U. S. Senate, should have met with prompt acceptance 
by the people of all the States, and by their constituted represen- 
tatives, and while we ask for nothing more, we will submit to noth- 
ing less. 

" 9th. That we coniemn all hasty and precipitate action by indi- 
viduals or States ; but, being under like condemnation, we cordially 
sympathize with the people of the other Slave States, and if all 
other redress shall fail, we will cordially and promptly appeal with 



AS A STATESMAN. 373 

them to the God of Battles, in defense of our common rights, and 
in redress for our common wrongs." 

Is this conciliation ? Your friends propose to decide the matter 
in issue between themselves and us, and then to enforce their de- 
cision by a prompt appeal to " the God of Battles." Is not yours a 
God of ballot-boxes as well as of battles? You claim to have a 
majority of the people on your side: why not appeal to votes rath- 
er than to bullets ? Nay : You have already (it is said,) secured a 
majority in both Houses of the next Congress: why not appeal to 
that? You have the Supremo Court fast against us for at least the 
full term of Mr. Lincoln: why not appeal to the tribunals? We 
have passed no act of Congress whereof you complain : you do not 
fear that we shall have power to pass any. You have three de- 
partments of the Federal Government out of four, and say you 
would have had the fourth had you not quarreled among your- 
selves ; then why should you appeal to " the God of Battles ?" If 
you have the people, as you surely have Congress and the Judi- 
ciary on your side, what need have you to threaten rebellion be- 
cause we have the President ? 

IV. I am not forgetting that you propose a submission of your 
proposition to the judgment of the people, each Congressional Dis- 
trict to have one vote upon it. But this would not be fair, for 
many reasons, lii the first place, the Slave States would have a 
dozen more, the Free States a dozen less, than their present popu- 
lation entitles them to respectively. But, beyond this, you know, 
as I know, that there can be no fair submission to a popular vote. 
In every district of the Free States, your side of the question could 
and would be fully and fairly argued ; it could not on our side be 
argued, nor could votes be polled in the Slave States. You, for ex- 
ample, need not be told that you will be heard with polite attention 
by large audiences in any Republican State ; but I assure you that 
Governor Wise and Mr. Yancy may speak as freely, and will be 
heard as patiently in Worcester, in Auburn, in St. Lawrence, in 
Wilmot's district, as any Republican. But would I be allowed to 
set forth to the non-slaveholding whites of the Slave States my 
reasons for wishing slavery excluded from the Territories ? Could 
I even be allowed freely to distribute throughout tho Slave States 
journals and documents setting forth my view of the question? 
You know that we could not be allowed to present our side to the 
people of the Slave States, though you may not know the fact that 
not one-third of those citizens of Slave States who wanted Mr. Lin- 
coln elected, dared vote for him. It was so in your own State ; 
so in others; it would be so if a vote were taken on your proposi- 



374 HORACE GREELEY 

tion. We would not be allowed to present our case to your 
people ; and even those who, without such presentation, are with 
us, would not be free to vote as they think. Have you forgotten 
the destruction of more than one Anti-Slavery press by Kentucky 
mobs? Do you not recall the expulsion of the leading families 
from Berea, in your State, for no pretense of fault but their hostil- 
ity to slavery ? You are a lawyer and a good one: would you 
like to submit a great case to a jury, one-half of whom were not al- 
lowed to hear your argument, and could only give you a verdict at 
the peril of their lives ? 

V. The people of the Slave, and especially the Cotton States, 
have for thirty years been taught that the Union taxes and impov- 
erishes them for the benefit of the North. Believing this, they 
are frequently impelled to menace us with disunion, presuming 
that we will do or say anything to avert that calamity to our sec- 
tion. It is high time that mischievous delusion were dispelled, 
since the North can have neither equality nor peace in the Union, 
until it shall be. The issue having been fairly made up — let the 
North recede from its principles or bid adieu to the Union — I do 
not see how we can make any concession of principle without dis- 
honor. We regard it as a dictate of conscience — so Mr. Webster 
taught us — that we should never consent to an extension of the 
area of slavery. We mean to be faithful to that conviction. 

Mr. Crittenden ! The people of the Free States, with every re- 
spect for you, propose to stand by the Constitution as it is ; to 
respect the rightful authorities, State and Federal ; to let Congress 
enact such laws as to the majority shall seem good ; and to back 
the Executive in enforcing those laws and maintaining the integ- 
rity of the Union. For whatever troubles may impend or arise, 
those who conspire and rebel are justly responsible; if they would 
submit when beaten, as we do, there would be unbroken peace and 
prosperity. If the system established by our fathers is to give 
place to one of South American x>ronu7iciamientos and revolts by 
the defeated, in each election, let us know it now, and be prepared 
to act accordingly. In any case, allow me with deference, to sug- 
gest that your proper place is with those who, whether in or out 
of power, defer to rightfully-constituted Government, and uphold 
the majesty of law. 

Yours, 

Horace Greeley 

New York, Jan. 7, 1861. 

No man in the country was more able, and willing, and ready 



AS A STATESMAN. 375 

to confront, in the interest of the Union, all questions presented 
for solution by the enemy, than Mr. Greeley. And when the 
rebellion was over, no man was more ready than he was to heal 
up the wounds of a kindred people, and obliterate and forget the 
ravages and sad recollections of war. He declared in favor of 
amnesty for all who were engaged in the Rebellion, soon after the 
surrender of Gen. Lee, and constantly urged a settlement of the 
question of reconstruction upon the basis of Universal Amnesty 
and Universal Suffrage. When the Fifteenth Amendment was 
ratified, he published in the Tribune of April 8, 1870, the fol- 
lowing editorial, still urging Congress to do what mercy and jus- 
tice repuired toward the misguided of our brethren in the South : 

CLOSE THE BOOKS I 

This day, the colored men of our city celebrate, by a procession, 
followed by a public meeting, the completion of the good work of 
their emancipation hy the ratification of the XVth Amendment to 
the Federal Constitution. We ardently trust that the day may he 
propitious, and that all may unite in the fervent hope that the 
rights won for the black race may be so exercised as to benefit not 
themselves only, but our whole people. 

To-morrow, the American Anti-Slavery Society — which has 
fought the battle of Universal Freedom bravely, if not always 
wisely, for the last forty years — meets to disband its organization, 
in testimony that its warfare is accomplished. Seldom has so 
small a body contended so persistently, unflinchingly, for so great 
a truth ; seldom has a cause which, at the outset, seemed, to ordi- 
nary vision, so hopeless, achieved such unqualified triumph in the 
lifetime of its first apostles. 

That triumph is of moment not alone in our country. It tolls 
the knell of Human Bondage throughout the civilized world. For 
the second time, the truth is to be established and enforced that a 
Christian can neither originate nor prolong the hereditary enslave- 
ment of any race of men. It may take a few more years to banish 
the last vestiges of human chattelhood from tropical America ; but 
the end is no longer doubtful nor remote. The dawn of the next 
century will irradiate no slave-hut iu Christendom. 

For what has been achieved, as also for its fruits not yet real- 
ized, let universal thanksgivings ascend to God. The Millennium 
is not here, and not likely soon to be. Injustice, oppression and 



376 HORACE GREELEY 

tyranny — fraud, profligacy and misery — still darken the earth. 
Sensuality and iniquity abound. Corruption and prodigality pro- 
fane the high places of the land. Abject poverty and brutal ignor- 
ance are still the lot of millions, even in this boasted land of free- 
dom and opportunity. Yet it is very much to have established 
firmly the principle that the law is no good man's enemy, but the 
friend of every virtuous effort. If the State is yet unable to lift all 
men up, it no longer holds any down. The child born to-morrow 
in the most squalid hovel may yet become President of the United 
States. 

And now is the time to seal our great triumph by enacting and 
proclaiming Universal Amnesty. Our civil war virtually closed 
with Lee's surrender five years ago. No armed force has marched 
or fired a shot under the flag of the Southern Confederacy since 
May, 1865. There are bad men who still commit outrages ; there 
is not, and for years has not been, an open, embodied resistance to 
the Federal authority and laws. It is high time that every one 
were officially assured that no penalty still impends over him for 
anything done or threatened in the interest and under the flag of 
the Rebellion. 

We ought, for our own sakes, to identify Universal Amnesty 
with Universal Suffrage. 

Other questions of great national concern have been discussed 
with ability and wisdom by Mr. Greeley, in a manner only 
done by the able and advanced statesman. 

He has not yet espoused the cause of Woman Suffrage, and he 
is not likely to ; nor has the subject been sufficiently advanced to 
settle the question of the correctness of his position upon it. 

Notwithstanding the labors done by the public press, and 
on the lecture platform on the subject of Woman Suffrage, there 
are but comparatively few who believe that the admission of 
women to the use of the ballot would in the least advance the 
social and political interests of the women of the country, or con- 
tribute to the general good of society. 

The wise statesman knows that civil government, in essence, is 
organized force, for the purpose of establishing justice among 
men, and securing to each citizen a fair chance in the race of 
life, and that no portion of the human race contributes force that 



AS A STATESMAN. 377 

does not possess it. The ballot in a Republican Government is 
the means by which to maintain force in an organized condition. 

That the male half of the race possesses the will or force 
power, there is no question of doubt. That the female half does 
not possess one particle of maintaining or resisting power is 
equally true. In evidence of this, woman's official position as 
ruler of nations has only been nominal. She has never made or 
controlled revolutions, nor carved empires and States out of chaos 
and disorder. She has never led the way to discovery and colon- 
ization, nor to dominion in any of the great fields of social and 
political triumph ; and whether in the very nature of things her 
admission to the ballot box, and consequently to the legislative 
halls, will not precipitate a repetition, in our age, of the debased 
Senate of Heliogabalus is a question to be gravely met, not by 
silly agitators, but by wise statesmen, and earnest woman. But 
it is charged that Mr. Greeley, by opposing Woman Suffrage, 
virtually favors, the infliction of a wrong upon women which is 
despotic and subversive of their rights. This is the beginning and 
the end of the doctrine of Woman Suffrage ; but when we test 
this assumption by a never-varying law of God, we find there is 
no truth in it, viz : It is a law of God, to remove, by aimed 
revolution, great errors that grow upon nations, if men do not 
remove them by legislation. No people can escape the enforcement 
of this law. Now let us test the correctness of Woman Suffrage 
by this law of God, which he has executed in all ages, and among 
all people. If Woman Suffrage is right in the very nature of 
things, then to debar her from the exercise of that right, is an op- 
pression universal and absolute, which, if men do not dispose of 
by legislation, God will, in his own good time, dispose of by 
armed revolution, and throw the shackles from women, and lift 
them out of bondage, and give them the full and free use of the 
ballot, and "put a new song in their mouths, even praises to 
God." 

But does any sane man or woman think for a single second of 
time, that God will ever send an armed revolution to any nation, 
for the purpose of establishing Woman Suffrage ? If not, then Mr. 



378 HORACE GREELEY 

Greeley's statesmanship is forever vindicated, in opposing this 
unnatural and inexpedient conventionality in government — Wo- 
man Suffrage. The agitation grows out of the misunderstood and 
misdirected premonitions of a great social revolution, which is im- 
perceptibly, though instinctively, heralded to the human race ; and 
which will, in its coming, form a new era in the moral and social 
development of mankind. 

Voting is not a finality in securing the rights of man. In the 
abstract, it neither elevates nor enlightens individuals or States. 
It is only incidental in directing the forms of government, by 
wielding the people in mass, instead of the few. And whether 
Woman Suffrage is, with an unconquerable fanaticism, pressed to 
success and sad experience, or not ; beyond the temporary insani- 
ty of the people, will arise a new reason and a new statesmanship, 
tried and enlarged by a terrible experience, that will vindicate in 
truest terms, the wisdom of Horace Greeley, in opposing such 
an unnatural political demand. 

In the meantime, let it be said to his credit, that through all 
his long life of earnest toil for his fellows, he has been an ad- 
vanced advocate of Woman's Rights, and has done more for the 
education and elevation of woman, than all the modern rampant 
women lecturers and writers of the country, together with all the 
Woman Suffrage conventions that have been held, and that, too, 
in good part, before many of the hot-headed women of the pres- 
ent day were born. 

To sum up Horace Greeley, and consider him in his true 
light, he must be assigned a place in the front rank of American 
statesmen ; with acknowledged scope of intellect and sagacity of 
mind, to place him in advance of his countrymen, in advance of 
the world's civilization and progress. He must be written as a 
statesman of singular moral worth and courage, who dared to do — 
in spite of error and ignorance, among the people — in spite of dem- 
agogueism and cowardice in State Legislatures — in spite of con- 
servative power and party despotism in the national Congress, and 
among the people's chosen representatives, with equal ability and 
equal honor, to stand in the front rank of the great men of his 



AS A STATESMAN. 379 

country, and with a heroic soul that dared to step in advance of 
the legal and conventional usages and political creeds of his coun- 
trymen, he must be recorded as a statesman essentially in advance 
of his age ; a statesman whose life seems destined to be crowned 
with the honors of the sage. Like the industrious -and frugal hus- 
bandman, who, at the close of a season of arduous toil, reaps the 
rich reward for his unremittant labors, and receives the praises of 
his neighbors and friends when he lies down to sweet sleep in the 
quiet of his own home, sanctified by the consciousness of having 
always been faithful to his own convictions, of having lived right- 
eously toward himself, his fellow men, his country, and his God, 
will Horace Greeley close his career, at peace with himself ; 
and, honored and loved by the people, of a nation, will lie down 
to sweet sleep in the loving arms of universal nature. 



CHAPTER Vm. 

HORACE GREELEY AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 




HIS is, without a question of doubt, an age of unprece- 
1 dented mental activity. Mankind of the nineteenth century- 
are far more advanced in intellectual growth, than in the 
days of Grecian classics, or Roman supremacy ; and it is alto- 
gether possible that if Frederick the Great, could again, at this 
time, survey the mental status of the present inhabitants of the 
globe, he would find more than two hundred thousand of the en- 
tire number, properly enlightened. 

Not only are the masses of the people more enlightened now 
than at any other period of the history of the race, but the indi- 
vidual has grown up to be a mental giant, having gathered to 
himself the knowledge of all lands, and of all men. If we inquire 
why the mentality of our age is so far in advance, and unceasing- 
ly tending to still mightier triumphs of the mind, we find that it 
comes from the fact that man has brought into requisition the pro- 
ductive energies and mechanical forces of nature — the coal and 
the iron, the steam and the lightning, and the thousand forms of 
mechanical appliances. From the use of these have come the vast 
growth of modern commercial activity and mentality. From these 
have come the superior growth of the printing press, the school 
books, the lecture platform, the teacher, and the editor. 

In the procession of the great mental growth of our country, 
came Horace Greeley. He is one of the legitimate offspring of 
this unparalleled mental age. He was born with this century, and has 
grown upon its mighty tide of progress, and now stands unsurpassed 
by any man, in the unfolded embodiment of his mentality and man- 
hood. From the lowest walks of poverty and adversity, he grew 



382 HORACE GREELEY 

up from a printer boy to editor, politician, statesman, and man 
of letters. 

From the editorial chair he enlarged his sphere of mental work 
to the lecture platform, and has, from time to time, during more 
than twenty-five years, lectured to audiences in different parts of 
the country, upon subjects of an educational and reformatory 
character. Still advancing in mental growth, and constantly 
gathering knowledge by study, experience and investigation, he, 
in due time, arose from editor and lecturer, to author. His first 
book was made of lectures and essays on educational and reform- 
atory subjects, and entitled, "Hints toward Reforms," and was 
published in 1850. A second edition of this book, with addi- 
tions, was published in 1857, with the following title-page: 

HINTS TOWARD REFORMS, 

IN 

LECTURES, ADDRESSES, AND OTHER WRITINGS. 

BY HORACE GREELEY. 

Hasten the day, just Heaveii ! 

Accomplish thy design, 

And let the blessings thou hast freely given, 

Freely on all men shine ; 

Till equal rights be equally enjoyed, 

And human power for human good employed ; 

Till Law, and not the Sovereign, rule sustain, 

And Peace and Virtue undisputed reign. 

—Henry Ware. 

Listen not to the everlasting Conseiwative, who pines and whines 
at every attempt to drive him from the spot where he has lazily cast 
his anchor. ****** 

Every abuse must be abolished. 

The whole system must be settled on the right basis. 

Settle it ten times and settle it wrong, you will have the work 
to begin again. 

Be satisfied with nothing but the complete enfranchisement of 
humanity, and the restoration of man to the image of his God. 

Henry "Ward Beecher. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 383 

Once the welcome light has broken 

Who shall say 
What the unimagined glories 

Of the day? 
What the evil that shall perish 

In its ray? 
Aid the daring, tongue and penl 
Aid it, hopes of honest men 
Aid it, paper, aid it type 1 
Aid it, for the hour is ripe; 
And our earnest must not slacken 

Into play; 
Men of thought and men of action, 

Clear the way. 

— C'HAKLES MACKAT 
SECOND EDITION ENLARGED, 
WITH 
THE CRYSTAL PALACE AND ITS LESSONS. 



This volume contained the following generous dedicatiaa 

TO 

THE GENEROUS, THE HOPEFUL, THE LOVING, 

WHO, 

FIRMLY AND JOYFULLY BELIEVING IN THE IMPARTIAL AND 
BOUNDLESS GOODNESS OP OUR FATHER 

TEDST, 

THAT THE ERRORS, THE CRIMES, AND THE MISERIES, WHICH 
HAVE LONG RENDERED EARTH A HELL, SHALL YET BE 
SWALLOWED UP AND FORGOTTEN, IN A FAR EX- 
CEEDING AND UNMEASURED REIGN OF 
TRUTH, PURITY AND BLISS, 

THIS VOLUME 

IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 
BT 

THE AUTHOR. 



384 HORACE GREELEY 

This work contained the following preface, by the author : 

PKEFACE. 

Carlyle, if I rightly remember, tells us of an impulsive French- 
man, who, in the very crisis of the great Revolution, when the fren- 
zied public mind was intent on nothing short of the world's regen- 
eration, and the due and ample feeling of the Guillotine, as essen- 
tial thereto, rose in the National Convention, full to bursting with 
an idea which he could no longer stifle, and vociferated, " Mr. Pres- 
ident, I move that all the knaves and dastards be arrested I" — the 
very thing, you see, that the whole people were intent on, expressed 
in one very compact sentence. 

Where prisons could be found, to hold the arrested, or jailers to 
guard them — much more, provisions to subsist them — the mover 
had never stopped to calculate. 

He saw clearly that the fundamental evil, parent and fountain of 
all others, was the impunity allowed, the favor manifestly shown, 
to knavery and cowardice, and he was bent on a Radical Reform. 

A right good fellow, he was, too, at heart, I am sure, though not, 
perhaps, so practically sagacious, so readily cognizant of the rela- 
tions of means to ends, as he might have been. 

As he grew older, he doubtless became cooler, sager, more con- 
siderate, more conservative ; yet one may well doubt whether he- 
ever rose above the moral attitude of his single recorded inspira- 
tion. 

This apprehension of all the knaves and dastards, if you but con- 
sider, is one of the chief ends of man's existence and effort on 
earth. 

A very arduous and tedious work, you may well pronounce it, 
especially when you observe that they who should combine to do 
it, including many of those who think they are doing it, with those 
who make a show of doing it, in the hope of imposing on their co- 
temporaries, if not on themselves, are personally of the very class 
on whom the operation needs to be performed. 

It were a study to see the work really effected, and note how 
many, who at the outset were flourishing handcuffs, and trving to 
fit them to their neighbor's wrists, holding up ponderous jau-keys, 
and calling out, " This way, brother officers 1 Here's where the 
culprits are to be secured, till further ox-ders !" would find them- 
selves weai-ing the ruffles and tenanting cells at the close, with eyes 
of blank amazement, and visages of yard measure. Not entirely a 
novel spectacle would this be, and yet deeply interesting and in- 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 385 

etructive. Yes, " the arrest of all the knaves and dastards " — or 
rather their thorough cure of knavery and cowardice — is a task giv- 
en us to perform, and each must strive to do his part of it, even 
though with painful distrust — that he himself is not wholly free 
from the vices he is lahoring to eradicate. 

The more evil he discerns or suspects in himself, the harder he 
should labor for the general abolition and extinction of evil, be- 
ginning with his own faults, but not forgetting that others also de- 
serve and require effort for their eradication. 

Pe? - chance in the general warfare against injustice, meanness and 
wrong, the sincere soul finds the best attainable discipline and cor- 
rective for its own faults and errors. 

The volume herewith presented, is mainly composed of lectures, 
prompted by invitations to address popular Lyceums and young 
men's associations, generally those of the humbler class, existing 
in country villages and rural townships. These lectures were writ- 
ten in the years from 1842 to 1848 inclusive, each in haste, to fulfill 
some engagement already made, for winch preparation had been 
delayed, under the pressure of seeming necessities, to the latest mo- 
ment allowable. 

A calling, whose exactions are seldom intermitted for a day, nev- 
er for a longer period, and whose requirements, already excessive, 
seem perpetually to expand and increase, may well excuse the dis- 
traction of thought, aud rapidity of composition, which it renders 
inevitable. At no time has it seemed practicable to devote a whole 
day, seldom a full half-day, to the production of any of the essays con- 
tained in this volume. Not till months after the last of them was 
written, did the idea of collecting and printing them in this shape, 
suggest itself; and a hurried perusal is all that has since been giv- 
en them. The lecture, here entitled " The organization of labor," 
has been recast in part, to conform it to the existing state of facts ; 
the others are printed as they were delivered. Some of them are 
more florid in style than my present mood would dictate — that en- 
titled " Human Life," especially — but they were faithful transcripts 
of the mind, whence they emanated at the time they were written, 
and I could not now change without destroying them. Should their 
diction provoke the critic's sneer, so be it. 

I am tolerably case-hardened to the shafts of periodical wit, and 
shall receive any that may be in store for me, with fortitude, if not 
with complacency. I am quite aware that the literary merits of 
this volume are inconsiderable, indeed. But this work has a loftier 
and worthier aim than that of fine writing. 

It aspires to be a mediator, an interpreter, a reconciler, be- 
25 



386 HORACE GREELEY 

tween Conservatism and "Radicalism — to bring the two into such 
connection and relation that the good in each way obey the law of 
chemical affinity, and abandon whatever portion of either is false, 
mistaken or outworn, to sink down and perish. 

It endeavors so to elucidate and commend what is just and prac- 
tical in the pervading demands of our time for a social renovation 
that the human and philanthropic can no longer misrepresent and 
malign them as destructive, demoralizing or infidel, in their ten- 
dencies, but must joyfully recognize in them the fruits of past, and 
the seeds of future progress in the history of our race. 

Defective and faulty as these " hints" may be found or judged, I 
feel confident that their tendency is to practical beneficence, and 
that their influence, however circumscribed, cannot be otherwise 
than wholesome. 

In the absence of any reasonable ground of hope for personal 
gain or popularity, this trust must justify my intrusion upon the 
public, for the first, and perhaps for the last time, as the author of 
a book. 

The great truths that every human being is morally bound, by a 
law of our social condition, to leave the world somewhat better 
for his having lived in it — that no one able to earn bread has any 
moral right to eat tvithout earning it — that the obligation to be in- 
dustrious and useful is not invalidated by the possession of wealth, 
nor by the generosity of wealthy relatives — that useful doing in 
any capacity or vocation is honorable and noble, while idleness 
and prodigality in whatever station of life, are base and contempt- 
able — that every one willing to work has a clear, social and moral 
right to opportunity to labor, and to secure the fair recompense of 
such labor, while society cannot deny him without injustice — and 
that these truths demand and predict a comprehensive social re- 
form based upon and moulded by their dictates — these will be 
found faithfully if not forcibly set forth and elucidated in the fol- 
lowing pages. 

Of course, as the lectures were written independently of each 
other, and with intervals of months and often years between them, 
the reader can hardly fail to find the same proposition restated, 
the same arguments adduced, the same illustrations employed, in 
two or more instances. Each lecture is a separate thesis, deriving 
(I trust) confirmation and support from others, but not maintain- 
ing connection therewith. 

And in the arrangement of the volume, so far as any plan was 
kept in view, diversity and variety rather than continuity and 
consecutiveness, were deemed desirable. 



AS A MAN OF LETTEKS. 387 

I know how easily the public mind grows weary of dry discus- 
sion. 

Of the briefer essays which conclude the volume, two only — 
that on "Death by Human Law," and that on "Flogging in the 
Navy " — have been recast expressly for this work, and these but 
to give a more compact and methodical expression to views al- 
ready submitted in other forms to the ordeal of public judgment. 

Four or five of these essays (mainly of a religious cast,) were 
written from year to year for "The Rose of Sharon" annual, 
while the residue have in good part appeared at various times in 
the columns of the Tribune. 

These were generally suggested by some recent event, some ap- 
parent public necessity, but I hope they will not be found antiqua- 
ted nor out of place, now and here. 

I trust this explanation of the impulse and character of these 
" hints " will not be mistaken for an apology. I make none, and 
solicit no lenity. I inculpate no partial friend, no delighted audi- 
tor, as instigating this volume. 

If there be no true worth in it, let the serious guilt of adding 
another to the deplorable multitude of books unfit to be read, rest 
on my shoulders alone. But if it shall be found to utter any word 
calculated to irradiate, however faintly or transiently, the onward 
pathway of our race, then it will stand fully justified, though all 
the critics should unite to blast it by their fiercest maledictions, or 
their more fatal silence. H. G. 

New York, April 20, 1850. 

A striking and remarkable page of " Hints toward Reforms," is 
the following epitaph by Mr. Greeley written to the memory of 
the martyrs to human liberty, who fell in 1857 while bravely de- 
fending Rome : 



IN MEMORY 

OF THB 

MARTYRS TO HUMAN LIBERTY, 

WHO FELL 

DURING THE SIEGE, MAY AND JUNE, 1849. 

AS 

DEFENDERS O E ROME, 

AGAINST 

THE MACHINATIONS OF DESPOTISM, THE WILES OF AMBITIOUS HYPOCRISY 

AND 

THE INFERNAL PERFIDY OF MONARCHICAL VILLIANS WHO HAVE STOLEN POWER IN FRANCE, 

BY MEANS OP 

HOLLOW PROFESSIONS OF TnAT REPUBLICANISM THEY MORTALLY 

HATE, AND SWEARING FIDELITY TO THAT CONSTITUTION WHICH 

THEY HASTENED MOST GLARINGLY TO VIOLATE; 

Thus Richly deserving, 

The loathing detestation of the honest and just. 

NOT SO THEY 

WHO FELL OX THE RAMPARTS OF ROME, 

Sternly Struggling 

AGAINST OVERWHELMING NUMBERS, AGAINST AMPLE MUNITIONS, AGAINST FATE: 
THEIR HIGHEST HOPE THAT IN THEM. LIVING OR DEAD, THE SACRED CAUSE SHOULD NOT 

BE DISHONORED. 

Their proudest wish 

THAT FREEDOM'S CHAMPIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD MIGHT 

RECOGNIZE THEM AS BRETHREN, 

Nobly Dying 

THAT SURVIVING MILLIONS MAY DULY ABHOR TYRANNY AND LOVE LIBERTY:. 

Closing their eyes serenely, 

IN THE GENEROUS FAITH THAT RIGHTS FOR ALL, DOMINION FOR NONE, WILL SOON 
REVIVIFY THE EARTH BAPTIZED IN THEIR BLOOD. 

Stay, heedless Wanderer! 
DEFILE NOT WITH LISTLESS STEP THE ASHES OF HEROES ! 

BUT 

ON THE RELICS OF THESE MARTYRS SWEAR A DEEPER AND STERNER HATE TO EVERY FORM 

OF OPPRESSION. 

Here learn to feel 

A DEARER LOVE FOR ALL WHO STRIVE FOR LIBERTY. 

Here breathe a Prayer 

FOR THE SPEEDY TRIUMPH OF RIGHT OVER MIGHT, LIGHT OVER 

NIGHT ; 

and for Rome's fallen defenders, 

THAT THE GOD OF THE OPPRESSED AND AFFLICTED MAY HAVE THEM IN HIS 

HOLY KEEPING. 



"They never fail who die 
In a great cause; the' block may soak their gore; 
Their heads may sodden in the sun ; their limbs 
Be strung to oily gales and castle walls — 
But still their spirit walks ;il.ruad." 

Byron — Marino Fnliero, Act LT., Scene 2. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 389 

In the Spring of 1851, (April) Mr. Greeley visited Europe. 
In the prosecution of his journey, he wrote letters from time to 
time, to the New York Tribune, comprising reflections, observa- 
tions and incidents of his journey. When he returned in the 
Fall, an enterprising publishing house in New York, applied 
for a copy of the letters, forty- four in' number, for publica- 
tion. Terms were agreed upon, and Mr. Greeley's name ap- 
peared in October, 1851, to another and second volume of his 
writings, bearing the following title-page, as well as the foregoing 
preface, to the volume : 

GLANCES AT EUROPE ; 

IN A 

SERIES OF LETTERS 

FROM 

GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, ITALY, SWITZERLAND, ETC., 

DURING 

THE SUMMER OF 1851. 

INCLUDING NOTICES OF THE 

GREAT EXHIBITION, OR WORLD'S FAIR. 

BY HORACE GREELET. 



NO APOLOGY. 

If there be any reader impelled to dip into notes of foreign trav- 
el, mainly by a solicitude to perfect his knowledge of the manners 
and habits of good society, to which end he is anxious to learn how 
my Lord Shuffleton waltzes, what wine Baron-IIob-and-Nob pat- 
ronizes, which tints predominate in Lady Highflyer's dress, and 
what is the probable color of the Duchess of Doublehose's garters, 
he will only waste his time by looking through this volume. 

Even if the species of literature he admires had not already been 
overdone, I have neither taste nor capacity for increasing it. 

It was my fortune sometime while in Europe, to " sit at good 
men's feasts," but I brought nothing away from them for the pub- 



390 HORACE GREELEY 

lie, not even the names of my entertainers and their notable gnests. 
If I had felt at liberty to sketch what struck me as the personal 
characteristics of some gentlemen of note or rank, whom I met, es- 
pecially in England, I do not doubt that the popular interest in 
these letters would have been materially Lightened. I did not, 
however, deem myself authorized to do this. In a few instances, 
where individuals challenged observation and criticism, by con- 
senting to address public gatherings, I have spoken of the matter 
and manner of their speeches, and indicated the impressions they 
made on me. Beyond this, I did not feel authorized to go, even in 
the case of public men speaking to the public through reports for 
the daily press ; while those whom I only met privately, or in the 
discharge of kindred duties, as jurors at the Exhibition, I have not 
felt at liberty to bring before the public at all. 

Having thus explained what will seem to many a lack of piquan- 
cy, in the following pages, implying a privation of social opportu- 
nities, I drop the subject. No one can realize more fully than the 
writer, the utter absence of literary merit in these letters. He does 
not deprecate nor seek to disarm criticism ; he only asks that his 
sketches be taken for what they profess and strive to be, and for 
nothing else. That they are superficial, their title proclaims ; that 
they were hurriedly written, with no thought of style nor of en- 
during interest, all whom they are likely to interest or to reach, 
must already know. A journalist traveling in foreign lands, es- 
pecially those which have been once the homes of his habitual 
readers, or at least of their ancestors, cannot well refrain from 
writing of what he sees and hears ; his observations have a value 
in the eyes of those readers, which will be utterly unrecognized by 
the colder public outside of the sympathizing circle. For the ha- 
bitual readers of the Tribune especially, were these letters writ- 
ten, and their original purpose has already been accomplished. 
Here they would have rested, but for the unsolicited offer of the 
publishers to reproduce them in a book at their own cost and risk, 
and on terms ensuring a fair share of any proceeds of their sale to 
the writer. 

Such offers from publishers, to authors who have no established 
reputation as book-makers, are rarely made, and even more rarely 
refused. Therefore, sir Critic ! whose dog-eared manuscript has 
circulated from one publisher's drawer to another, until its initial 
pages are scarcely readable, while the ample residue retain all their 
pristine freshness of hue, you are welcome to your revenge 1 Your 
novel may be tedious beyond endurance ; your epic a preposterous 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 391 

waste of once valuable foolscap ; but your slashing review is sure 
to be widely read and enjoyed. 

My aim in writing these letters, was to give a clear and vivid da- 
guerreotype of the districts I traversed, and the incidents which 
came under my observation. To this end, I endeavored to see, so 
far as practicable, through my own eyes, rather than those of oth- 
ers. To this end, I generally shunned guide books, even those of 
the " indispensable "Murray, and relied mainly for routes and dis- 
tances on the shilling hand-book of Bradshaw. 

That I have been misled into many inaccuracies, and some gross 
blunders, as to noted edifices, works of art, etc., is quite probable ; 
but that I have truthfully, though hastily, indicated the topo- 
graphy, rural aspects, agricultural adaptations, and more obvious 
social characteristics of the countries I traversed, I am neverthe- 
less confident. 

I made a point of penning my impressions of each day's journey 
within the succeeding twenty-four hours, if practicable, for I found 
that even a day's postponement impaired the distinctness of my 
recollections of the ever-varying panorama of hill and dale, moor 
and mountain, with long, level or undulating stretches of inter- 
mingled woods, grain, grass, etc., etc. 

I trust the picture I have attempted to give of out-door life in 
Western Europe, the workers in its fields, and the clusters in its 
streets, will be recognized by competent judges, as substantially 
correct. 

The opinions expressed with respect to national characteristics 
or aptitudes, will of course appear crude and rash to those who re- 
gard them as based exclusively on the few day's personal observa- 
tion in which they may seem to have originated. To those who 
regard them as grounded in some knowledge of history, and 
of the present political and social condition of those nations, cor- 
rected and modified indeed, by the personal observation aforesaid, 
their crudity and audacity will be somewhat less astounding. No 
one will doubt that other travelers in Europe have been far better 
qualified to observe and to judge than I was, yet I see and thiuk, 
and am not forbidden to speak. 

We know already how Europe appears in the eyes of the learned 
and wise ; but if some Nepaulese embassador, or vagrant Camanche 
wei'e to publish his "first impressions" of Great Britain or Italy, 
should we utterly refuse to open it because Baird or Thackeray 
could give us more accurate information on that identical theme ? 
Would not the Camanche's criticism possess some value as his, 
quite apart from their intrinsic worth or worthlessness ? Might 



392 HORACE GREELEY 

they not afford some insight into Indian modes of thought, if none 
into European modes of life? 

I deeply regret that the general impression made on me by the 
Italians, was such, that my estimate of their character and capa- 
bilities gave offence to their brethren now settled in this country. 
Their feeling is a natural, creditable one ; I will not reply to their 
strictures, yet I must let what I wrote in Italy of the Italians, stand 
unmodified. I shall be most happy, indeed, to confess my mistake 
whenever it shall have been proved such, but I cannot as yet per- 
ceive it. And to those who, not unreasonably, dilate on the rash- 
ness of such judgment on the part of one who was only some few 
weeks in Italy, and did not even understand its people's language, I 
beg leave to commend a perusal of " Casa Guidi Windows," by 
Elizabeth Barret Browning. I had not seen it when I wrote, and 
the coincidence of its estimate of the Italians with mine, is of 
course utterly unpremeditated. Mrs. Browning speaks Italian and 
knows the Italians ; she lived among them throughout the late 
eventful years ; she sympathizes with their sufferings, and prays for 
their deliverance, but without shutting her eyes to the faults and 
grave defects of character which impede that deliverance, if they 
do not render it doubtful. To those who will read her brief, but 
noble poem, I need say no more ; on those who refuse to read it, 
words from me would be wasted. 

Believing that among the most imminent perils of the Republican 
cause in Europe, is the danger of a premature, sanguinary, fruit- 
less insurrection in Italy ; I have done what I could to prevent any 
such catastrophe. "When liberty shall have been re-vindicated in 
France, and shall thereupon have triumphed in Germany, the reign 
of despotism will speedily terminate in Italy ; until that time, I do 
not see how it can wisely be even resisted. 

A word of explanation as to the " AVorld's Fair," must close this 
too long introduction : The letters in this volume which refer to 
the great Exhibition of Industry, were mainly written when the 
persistent and unsparing disparagement of the British press had 
created a general impression that the American Exposition was a 
mortifying failure, and when even some of the Americans in Eu- 
rope, taking their cue from that press, were declaring themselves 
"ashamed of their country," because of such failure. Of course, 
these letters were written to correct the then prevalent erroi - s. 
More recently, the tide has completely turned, until the danger 
now imminent is that of extravagant, if not groundless exultation, 
bo that this Fair would be treated somewhat differently, '! I were 
now to write about it. The truth lies midway between the ex- 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 393 

tremes already indicated. Our share in the exhibition was credit- 
able to us as a nation not yet a century old, situated three to five 
thousand miles from London ; it embraced many articles of great 
practical value, though uncouth in form and utterly unattractive 
to the mere sight-seer ; other nations will profit by it, and we shall 
lose no credit. But it fell far short of what it might have been, 
and did not fairly exhibit the progress and present condition of the 
useful arts in this country. We can and must do better next time, 
and that without calling on the Federal treasury to pay a dollar of 
the expense. 

Friends in Europe ! I may never meet the greater number of 
you on earth ; allow me thus informally to tender you my hearty 
thanks for many well remembered acts of unsought kindness, and 
unexpected hospitality. That your future years may be many and 
prosperous, and your embarkation on the great voyage which suc- 
ceeds the journey of life, may be serene and hopeful, is the fervent 
prayer of Yours sincerely, 

H. G. 

New York, October 1, 1851. 

The following is the first letter of the series, by the author, 
in which he very naturally treats of the voyage across the " dark, 
and deep-blue ocean :" 

CROSSING THE ATLANTIC. 

Liverpool, (Eng.,) April 28, 1851. 

The leaden skies, the chilly rain, the general out-door aspect 
and prospects of discomfort prevailing in New York, when our 
good steamship, Baltic, cast loose from her dock, at noon, on the 
16th inst., were not particularly calculated to inspire and exhiler- 
ate the goodly number who were then bidding adieu, for months, 
at least, to home, country, and friends. The most sanguine of the 
inexperienced, however, appealed for solace to the wdnd, which 
they, so long as the city completely sheltered us on the east, insist- 
ed was blowing from " a point west of North "—whence they vcy 
logically deduced that the north-east storm, now some thirty-six 
to forty-eight hours old, had spent its force, and would soon give 
place to a serene and lucid atmosphere. I believe the barometer 
at no time countenanced this augury, which a brief experience suf- 
ficed most signally to confute. 

Before we had passed Coney Island, it was abundantly certain 
that our freshening breeze hailed directly from Labrador, and the 



394 HORACE GREELEY 

icebergs beyond, and had no idea of changing its quarters. By the 
time we were fairly outside of Sandy Hook, we were struggling 
with as uncomfortable and damaging a cross-sea, as had ever en- 
larged my slender, nautical experience ; and in the course of the 
next hour, the high resolves, the valorous defiances, of the scores 
who had embarked in the settled determination that they tootdd 
not be sea-sick, had been exchanged for pallid faces and heaving 
bosoms. 

Of our two hundred passengers, possibly one-half were able to 
face the dinner-table at 4 p. M. ; less than one-fourth mustered to 
supper at 7 ; while a stern, but scanty remnant — perhaps twenty in 
all— answered the summons to breakfast next morning. I was not 
in any one of these categories. So long as I was able, I walked the 
deck, and sought to occupy my eyes, my limbs, my brain, with 
something else than the sea and its perturbations. The attempt, 
however, proved a signal failure. 

By the time we were five miles off the Hook, I was a decided 
case ; another hour laid me prostrate, though I refused to leave the 
deck; at six o'clock, a friend, finding me recumbent and hopeless 
in the smokers' room, persuaded and helped me to go below. There 
I unbooted, and swayed into my berth, which endured me, per- 
force, for the next twenty-four hours. I then summoned strength 
to crawl on deck, because, while I remained below, my sufferings 
were barely less than while walking above, and my recovery hope- 
less. 

I shall not hai*row up the souls nor the stomachs of landsmen, as 
yet reveling in blissful ignorance of its tortures, with any descrip- 
tion of sea-sickness. They will know all, in ample season ; or, if 
not, so much the better. But naked honesty requires a correction 
of the prevalent error, that this malady is necessarily transient and 
easily overcome. Thousands, who imagine they have been sea-sick 
on some river or lake steamboat, or even during a brief sleigh-ride, 
are annually putting to sea with as little necessity or urgency, as 
suffices to send them on a jaunt to Niagara, or the White Moun- 
tains. They suppose they may very probably be " qualmish " for 
a few hours, but that (they fancy,) will but highten the general en- 
joyment of the voyage. 

Now it is quite true that any green sea-goer may be sick, for a 
few hours only; he may even not be sick at all. But the probabil- 
ity is very far from this, especially when the voyage is undertaken 
in any other than one of the four sunniest, blandest months in the 
year. Of every hundred who cross the Atlantic for the first time, 
1 am confident that two-thirds endure more than they had done in 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 395 

all the five years preceding — more than they would do, during two 
months' hard labor as convicts in a State-prison. 

Of our two hundred, I think fifty did not see a healthy or really 
happy hour during the passage ; while as many more were suffer- 
ing for at least half the time. The other hundred were mainly 
ocean's old acquaintances, and on that account, treated more kind- 
ly ; but many of these had some trying hours. 

Utter indifference to life, and all its belongings, is one of the char- 
acteristics of a genuine case of sea-sickness No. 1. I enjoyed some 
opportunities of observing this, during our voyage. For instance : 
One evening I was standing by a sick gentleman, who had dragged 
himself or been carried on deck, and laid down on a water-proof 
mattress, which raised him two or three inches from the floor. 
Suddenly a great wave broke square over the bow of the ship, and 
rushed aft in a l-iver, through either gangway — the two streams 
re-uniting beyond the purser's and doctor's offices, just where the 
sick man lay. Any live man would have jumped to his feet as sud- 
denly as if a rattlesnake were whizzing in his blanket; but the suf- 
ferer never moved, and the languid coolness of eye, wherewith he 
regarded the rushing flood which made an island of him, was most 
expressive. Happily, the wave had nearly spent its force, and was 
now so rapidly diffused, that his refuge was not quite overflowed. 
Of course, those who have voyaged and not suffered, will pronounce 
my general picture grossly exaggerated ; wherein they will be faith- 
ful to their own experience, as I am to mine. 

I write for the benefit of the uninitiated, to warn them, not 
against braving the ocean when they must or ought, but against 
resorting to it for pastime. Voyaging cannot be enjoyment to most 
of them ; it must be suffering. 

The sonorous rhymesters in praise of "a life on the ocean wave," 
"The sea! the sea! the open sea!" etc., were probably never out 
of sight of land in a gale, in their lives. If they were ever "half 
seas over," liquid which buoyed them up, was not brine, but wine, 
which is quite another affair. 

And, as they are continually luring people out of soundings who 
might far better have remained on terra Jlrma, I lift up my voice 
in warning against them. "A home on the raging deep," is not a 
scene of enjoyment, even to the sailor, who suffers only from hard- 
ship and exposure ; no other laborer's wages are so dearly earned 
as his, and his season of enjoyment is not the voyage, but the stay 
in port. He is compelled to work hardest just when other out- 
door laborers deem working at all out of the question. 

To him night and day are alike in their duties as in their exemp- 



396 HORACE GREELEY 

tions ; while the more furious and blinding' the tempest, the 
greater must be his exertions, perils and privations. 

In fair weather, his hours of rest are equal to his hours of labor; 
in bad weather he may have no hours of rest whatever. 

Should he find such, he flings himself into his bunk for a few 
hours in his wet clothes, and turns out smoking like a coal-pit at 
the next summons to duty, to be drenched afresh in the cold. affu- 
sions of sea and sky — and so on. 

An old sea-captain assured me that his crew were sometimes m 
wet clothing throughout an Atlantic voyage. Our weather was 
certainly bad, though not the worst. We started on our course, 
after leaving Sandy Hook, in the teeth of a North-Easter, and it 
clung to us like a brother. It varied to east, north-east, east, 
south-east, south, east, and occasionally condescended to blow 
little from nearly north or nearly south, but we had not six hours 
of westerly or semi-westerly wind throughout the passage. 

There may have been two days in all, though I think not, in 
which some of the principal sails could be made to draw ; but they 
were necessarily set so sharply at angles with the ship as to do 
little good. Usually, one or two try-sails were all the canvass dis- 
played, aud they rather served to steady the ship than to aid her 
progress ; while for days together, stripped to her naked spars, she 
was compelled to push her bow-sprit into the wind's very eye by 
the force of her engines alone. And that wind, though no hurri- 
cane, had a will of its own ; while the waves rolled perpetually 
igainst her bow by so long a succession of easterly winds, were a 
lecided impediment to our progress. 

I doubt whether there is another steamship which could have 
nade the passage safely and without extra effort, in less time than 
the Baltic did. 

Our weather was not all bad, though we had no thoroughly fair 
day — no day entirely free from rain — none in which the decks 
were dry throughout. In fact, the spray often kept them thor- 
oughly drenched, especially aft, when there was no rain at all. 

During four or five of the twelve days we had some hour or 
more of semi-sunshine either at morning, midday, or toward 
night. The only gales of much account were those of our first 
night off Long Island, and our last before seeing land, (Saturday) 
when on coming into soundings off the coast of Ireland, we had a 
veiy decided blow and (the ship having become very light by the 
consumption of most of her coal) the worst kind of a sea. It gave 
me my sickest hour, though not my worst day. Our dreariest 
days were Wednesday and Thursday, 23d and 24th, when we 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 397 

were a little more than half way across. With the wind pre- 
cisely ahead and very strong - , the skies black and lowering-, a 
pretty constant rain, and a driving, blinding spray which drenched 
everything above the decks, themselves ankle-deep in water, I can- 
not well imagine how tAVO hundred fellow-passengers, driven 
down and kept down in the cabins and state-rooms of a steam- 
ship, could well be treated to a more dismal prospect. 

I thought the philosophy even of the card-players (who were by 
far the most industrious and least miserable class among us,) was 
tried by it. Spacious as the Baltic is, two hundred passengers 
with fifty or sixty attendants, confined for days together to her 
cabins, fill her quite full enough. 

For those who are thoroughly well, there are society, read- 
ing, eating, play and other passtimes ; but for the sick and helpless, 
who can neither read nor play, whom even conversation fatigues, 
and to whom the underdeck smell, especially in connection with 
food, is intensely revolting, I can imagine no heavier hours short 
of absolute torture. 

Having endured these, I had nothing beyond them to dread, and 
it was rather a satisfaction, on reaching the Irish coast, to be 
greeted with a succession of hail squalls, to work up the channel 
against a wet North-Easter, and be landed in Liverpool (after a 
tedious detention for lack of water on the bar at the mouth of the 
Mersey) under sullen skies, and in a dripping rain. 

I wanted to see the thing out, and would have takei* amiss any 
deceitful smiles of fortune after I had learned to dispense with 
her favors. 

There yet remains the grateful duty of speaking of the mitiga- 
tions of our trials. And in the first place, the Baltic herself is un- 
questionably one of the safest and most commodious sea-boats 
in the world. She is probably not the fastest, especially with a 
strong head-wind and sea, because of her great bulk and the area 
of resistance she presents both above and below the water-line ; 
but for strength and excellence of construction, steadiness of 
movement, and perfection of accommodation, she can have no 
superior. Her wheels never missed a revolution from the time 
she discharged her New York pilot, till the time she stopped them 
to take on board his Liverpool counterpart, off Halyhead; and her 
sailing qualities, tested under the most unfavorable auspices, are 
also admirable. She needs but good weather to make the run in 
ten days from dock to dock ; she would have done it this time had 
the winds been the reverse of what they were, or as the Asia had 
them before her. The luck cannot always be against her. 



398 HORACE GREELEY 

Praise of commanders and officers of steamships has become so 
common that it has lost all emphasis, all force. 

I presume this is for the most part deserved; for it is not likely" 
that the great responsibility of sailing - these ships would be en- 
trusted to any other than the very fittest hands ; and this is a mat- 
ter wherein mistakes may by care be avoided. 

The qualities of a seaman, a commander, do not lie dormant : 
the ocean tries and proves its men ; while in this service the whole 
traveling public are the observers and judges. But such a voyage 
as we have just made, tries the temper as well as the capacity ; it 
calls into exercise every faculty, and lays bare defects, if such 
there be. 

To sweep gaily on before a fresh, fair breeze, is comparatively 
easy, but few landsmen can realize the patient assiduity and nauti- 
cal skill required to extract propelling power from winds deter- 
mined to be dead ahead. 

How nicely the sails must be set at the sharpest angle with the 
course of the vessel, and sometimes that course itself varied a 
point or two to make them draw at all ; how often they must be 
shifted, or reefed, or furled ; how much labor and skill must be 
put in requisition to secure a very slight addition to the speed of 
the ship — all this I am not seaman enough to describe, though I 
can admire. And during the entire voyage, with its many vicissi- 
tudes, 1 did not hear one harsh or profane word from an officer, 
one sulky or uncivil response from a subordinate. And the per- 
fection of Captain Comstock's commandership in my eyes was 
that, though always on the alert, and giving directions to every 
movement, he did not need to command half so much, nor to 
make himself anything like so conspicuous as an ordinary man 
would. I willingly believe that some share of the merit of this is 
due to the admirable qualities of his assistant, especially Lieuten- 
ants Duncan and Hunter, of the U. S. Navy. 

In the way of food and attendance, nothing desirable was wanted 
but health and appetite. Four meals per day were regularly pro- 
vided — at 8, 12, 4 and 7 o'clock respectively — which would favora- 
bly compare with those proffered at any but the very best hotels ; 
and some of the dinners — that of the last Sunday especially— 
would have done credit to the Astor or Irving. Of course I state 
this with the reservation that the best water and the best milk 
that can be had at sea are to me unpalatable, and that, even when 
I can eat under a deck, it is a penance to do so. 

But these drawbacks are ocean's fault, or mine ; not the Baltic's. 
Many of the passengers ate their four meals regularly, after the 

«t day out, with abundant relish ; and one young New-Yorker 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 399 

added a fifth, by taking a supper at ten each night with a capital 
appetite, after doing full justice to the four regular meals. If he 
could only patent his digestion and warrant it, he might turn his 
back on merchandize evermore. 

Tl^e attendance on the sick was the best feature of all. 

Aside from the constant and kind assiduities of Dr. Crary, tbe 
ship's physician, the patience and watchfulness with which the 
sick were nursed and tended, their wants sought out, their wishes 
anticipated, were remarkable. Many had three meals per day 
served to them separately in their berths or on deck, and even at 
unseasonable hours, and often had special delicacies provided for 
them, without a demur or sulky look. As there was no extra 
charge for this, it certainly surpassed any pi-econception on my 
part, of steamship amenity. I trust the ever-moving attendants re- 
ceived something more than their wages for their arduous labors ; 
they certainly deserved it. 

The notable incidents of our passage were very few. An iceberg 
was seen to the northward one morning about sunrise, by those 
who were on deck at that hour ; but it kept at a respectful dis- 
tance, and we thought the example worthy of our imitation. I 
understand that the rising sun's rays on its surface produced a fine 
effect. A single school of tv hales exhibited their flukes for our ed- 
ification — so I heard. Several vessels were seen, the first morning 
out, while we were in the Gulf stream ; one or two from day to 
day, and of course a number as we neared the entrance of the chan- 
nel on this side ;• but there were days wherein we saw no sail but 
our own ; and I think we traversed nearly a thousand miles at one 
time on this great highway of nations, without seeing one. Such 
facts give some idea of the ocean's immensity, but I think few can 
realize, save by experiment, the weary length of way from New 
York to Liverpool, nor the quantity of blue water which separates 
the two points. 

Friends who went to California by Cape Horn, and were sea- 
sick, I proffer you my heart-felt sympathies ! It was some consola- 
tion to me, even when most ill and impatient, to reflect that tho 
gales so adverse to us, were most propitious to the many emigrant- 
freighted packets, which at this season are conveying thousands to 
our country's shores, and whose clouds of canvas occasionally 
loomed upon us in the distance. What were our " light affiic- 
tions " compared with those of the multitudes crowded into their 
stifling steerages, so devoid of conveniences and comforts ! Speed 
on, O favored coursers of the deep, bearing swiftly those suffering 
exiles to the land of Hope and Freedom ! 

"We had a law trial by way of variety, last Saturday— Captain 



400 nORACE GREELE? 

Comstock having been duly indicted and arraigned for humbug, in 
permitting us to be so long beset by all manner of easterly winds, 
with never a puff from the westward. Hon. Ashbel Smith, from 
Texas, officiated as Chief Justice ; a jury of six ladies and six gen- 
tlemen, were empanneled ; James I. Brady conducted the prosecu- 
tion with much wit and spirit; while vEolus, Neptune, Captain 
Cuttle, Jack Bunsby, etc., testified for the prosecution, and Fair- 
weather, Westwind, Brother Johnathan, and Mr. Steady, gave ev- 
idence for the defense. The fun was rather heavy, but the audi- 
ence was very good natured, and whatever the witnesses lacked 
in wit, they made up in extravagance of costume, so that two hours 
were whiled away quite endurably. The jury not only acquitted 
the Captain without leaving their seats, but subjected the prose- 
cutors to heavy damages, (in wine,) as malicious defamers. The 
verdict was received with unanimous and hearty approval. But I 
must stop and begin again. 

Suffice it, that though we ought to have landed here inside of 
twelve days from New York, the difference in time (Liverpool us- 
ing that of Greenwich, for railroad convenience,) being all but five 
hours — yet the long prevalence of easterly winds had so lowered 
the waters of the Mersey, by driving those of the Channel westerly 
into the Atlantic, that the pilot declined the responsibility of tak- 
ing our ship over the bar, till high water, which was nearly seven 
o'clock. We then ran Tip opposite the city, but there was no dock- 
room for the Baltic, and passengers and light baggage were ferried 
ashore in a " steam tug," which we in New York should deem un- 
worthy to convey market garbage. At last, after infinite delay 
and vexation, caused in good part by the necessity of a Custom 
House scrutiny, even of carpet-bags, because men will smuggle 
cigars ashore here, even in their pockets, we were landed about nine 
o'clock, and to-morrow I set my watch by an English sun. 

There is promise of brighter skies. I shall hasten up to London 
to witness the opening of the World's Fair; and so, "my native 
land, good night." 

The following choice passage from his closing letter, written 
just before he entered the ship to return to his loved home on his 
native land : 

But I must not linger. The order to embark is given ; our good 
ship Baltic is ready ; another hour and I shall have left England 
and this continent, probably forever. With a fervent good-bye to 
the friends I leave on this side of the Atlantic, I turn my steps 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 401 

gladly and proudly toward my own loved "Western home — toward 
Lhe land wherein man enjoys larger opportunities than elsewhere 
to develop the better and the worse aspects of his nature, and 
where evil and good have a freer course, a wider arena for their in- 
evitable struggles, than is allowed them among the heavy fetters 
and east-iron forms of this rigid and wrinkled Old World. Doubt- 
less, those struggles will long be arduous and trying ; doubtless, 
the dictates of duty will there often bear sternly away from the 
halcyon bowers of popularity ; doubtless, he Avho would be single 
and wholly right, must there encounter ordeals as severe as those 
which here try the souls of the would-be-champions of progress and 
liberty. But political freedom, such as white men enjoy in the 
United States, and the mass do not enjoy in Europe, not even in 
Britain, is a basis for confident and well-grounded hope ; the run- 
ning stream, though turbid, tends over to self-purification ; the ob- 
structed, stagnant pool grows daily moro dark and loathsome. Be- 
lieving most firmly in the ultimate and perfect triumph of good 
over evil, I rejoice in the existence and diffusion of that liberty, 
which, while it intensifies the contest, accelerates the consummation. 
Neither blind to her errors, nor a panderer to her vices, I rejoice 
to feel that every hour henceforth till I see her shores, must lessen 
the distance which divides me from my country, whose advantages 
and blessings this four months' absence has taught me to appreci- 
ate more clearly, and to prize more deeply than before. 

With a glow of unwonted rapture, I see our stately vessel's prow 
turned toward the setting sun, and strive to realize that only some 
ten days separatu me from those I know and love best on earth. 
Hark I the last gun announces that the mail-boat has left us, and 
that we are fairly afloat on our ocean journey ; the shores of Eu- 
rope recede from our vision ; the watery waste is all around us ; 
and now, with God above, and death below, our gallant bark and 
her clustered company, together brave the dangers of the mighty 
deep. May infinite mercy watch over our onward path, and bring 
us safely to our several homes ; for to die away from home and 
kindred, seems one of the saddest calamities that could befall me. 
This mortal tenement would rest uneasily in an ocean shroud ; this 
spirit reluctantly resign that tenement to the chill and pitiless 
brine ; these eyes close regretfully on the stranger skies and bleak 
Lnhospitality of the sullen and stormy main. No ! let me see once 
more the scenes so well remembered and beloved ; let me grasp, 
if but once again, the hand of friendship, and hear the thrilling ac- 
cents of proved affection, and when, sooner or later, the hour of 
mortal agony shall come, let my last gaze be fixed on eyes that will 

26 



402 HORACE GREELEY 

not forget me when I am gone, and let my ashes repose in that con- 
genial soil which however I may there be esteemed or hated, is 
etill 

"My own green laud, forever." 

The constant growth of the anti-slavery sentiment of the coun- 
try, together with the persistent effort of a large body of our peo- 
ple to maintain and spread slavery, rendered that question one of 
the most exciting and wide spread subjects of discussion, in our 
country. Mr. Greeley being a zealous and prominent anti-slav- 
ery man, studied the subject thoroughly, and familiarized himself 
with its whole history, and in 1856, published a work embracing 
an outline history of the legislation of the country upon the subject 
of slavery, with the following title : 



HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE 

FOR 

SLAVERY EXTENSION OR RESTRICTION 

IN THE 

UNITED STATES, 

FROM THE 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 

TO THE PRESENT DAY. 

We quote the first chapter of the work as follows : 

SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 

Human slavery, as it existed in the pagan world, and especially 
in the infancy, vigor, and decline of Greek and Roman civilization, 
gradually died out in the advancing light of Christianity. 

When Columbus opened the New World to European enterprise 
and settlement, the serfdom of Russia and Hungary, and the mild 
bondage of Turkey — each rather an Asiatic or Scythian than a Eu- 
ropean power — were the last remaining vestiges of a system which 
had pervaded, and mastered, and ruined, the vast empires of Alex- 
ander and the Csesars. The few ignorant and feeble dependents 
elsewhere held in virtual bondage, by force rather of custom than 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 403 

of positive law, serve rather to establish than disprove his general 
statement. Lnst of gold and power was the main impulse of Span- 
ish migration to the marvelous regions beyond the Atlantic, and 
the soft and timid aborigines of tropical America, especially of 
its islands, were first compelled to surrender whatever they pos- 
sessed of the precious metals, to the imperious and grasping stran- 
gers , next forced to disclose to those strangers the sources whence 
they were most readily obtained; and finally driven to toil and 
delve for more, wherever power and greed supposed they might 
most readily be obtained. 

From this point, the transition to general enslavement was ready 
and rapid. The gentle and indolent natives, unaccustomed to rug- 
ged, persistent toil, and revolting at the harsh and brutal severity 
of their chi'istian masters, had but one unfailing resource — death. 
Through privation, hardship, exposure, fatigue and despair, they 
drooped and died, until millions were reduced to a few miserablo 
thousands within the first century of Spanish rule in America. 

A humane and observant priest, (Las Casas,) witnessing these 
cruelties and sufferings, was moved by pity to devise a plan for 
their termination. 

He suggested and urged the policy of substituting for these fee- 
ble and perishing " Indians " the hardier natives of "Western 
Africa, whom their eternal wars and marauding invasions were 
constantly exposing to captivity and sale as prisoners of war, and 
who, as a race, might be said to be inured to the hardship and 
degredations of slavery by an immemorial experience. 

The suggestion was unhappily approved, and the woes and miser- 
ies of the few remaining aborigines of the islands known to us as 
" "West Indies," were inconsiderably prolonged by exposing the 
whole continent for unnumbered generations to the evils and hor- 
rors of African slavery. The author lived to perceive and deplore 
the consequences of his expedient. 

The sanction of the Pope having been obtained for the African 
slave-trade by representations which invested it with a look of 
philanthrophy, Spanish and Portuguese mercantile avarice was 
readily enlisted in its prosecution, and the whole continent, north 
and south of the tropics, became a slave-mart before the close of 
the sixteenth century. 

Holland, a comparatively new and Protestant State, unable to 
shelter itself from the reproaches of conscience and humanity be- 
hind a Papal hull, entered upon the new traffic more tardily ; but 
its profits soon over-bore all scruples, and British merchants were 
not proof against the glittering evidences of their success. 



404 HORACE GREELEY 

But the first slave-ship that ever entered a North American port 
for the sale of its human merchandise, was a Dutch trading-vessel, 
Which landed twenty negro bondmen at Jamestown, the nucleus 
of Virginia, almost simultaneously with the landing of the Pil- 
grims of the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock, Dec. 22d, 1620. 

The Dutch slaver had chosen his market with sagacity. Vir- 
ginia was settled by Cavaliers — gentlemen-adventurers aspiring to 
live by their own wits and other men's labor — with the necessary 
compliment of followers and servitors. Few of her pioneer's cher- 
ished any earnest liking for downright, persistent, muscular ex- 
ertion ; yet some exertion was urgently required to clear away 
the heavy forest which all but covered the soil of the infant colony, 
and grow the Tobacco which easily became its staple export, by 
means of which nearly everything required by its people but food, 
was to be paid for in England. 

The slaves, therefore, found ready purchasers at satisfactory 
prices, and the success of the first venture induced others ; until 
not only Virginia but every part of British America was supplied 
with African slaves. This traffic, with the bondage it involved, 
had no justification in British, nor in the early colonial laws ; but 
it proceeded, nevertheless, much as an importation of dromedaries. 

Georgia was the first among the colonies to resist and remand it 
in her original* charter under the lead of her noble founder-gov- 
ernor, General Oglethorpe ; but the evil was too formidable and 
inveterate for local extirpation, and a few years saw it established, 
even in Georgia ; first evading or defying, and at length moulding 
and transforming the law. 

It is very common at this day to speak of our revolutionary 
struggle as commenced and hurried forward by a union of free and 
slave colonies ; but such is not the fact. 

However slender and dubious its legal basis, slavery existed in 
each and all of the colonies that united to declare and maintain 
their independence. Slaves were proportionately more numerous 
in certain portions of the South ; but they were held with impu- 
nity throughout the North, advertised like dogs or horses, and sold 
at auction, or otherwise, as chattels. 

Vermont, then a Territory in dispute between New Hampshire 
and New York, and with very few civilized inhabitants, mainly on 
its southern and eastern borders, is probably the only portion of 
the Revolutionary confederation never polluted by the tread of a 
slave. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 405 

The spirit of liberty, aroused or intensified by the protracted 
struggle of the colonists against usurped and abused power in the 
mother country, soon found itself engaged in natural antagonism 
against the curreut form of domestic despotism. 

How shall we complain of arbitrary or unlimited power exerted 
over us, while we exert a still more despotic and inexcusable 
power over a dependent and benighted race, was very fairly 
asked. 

Several suits were brought in Massachusetts — where the fires 
of liberty burnt earliest and brightest — to test the legal right of 
slaveholding; and the leading "Whigs gave their money and their 
legal services to support these actions, which were generally, on 
one ground or another, successful. 

Efforts for an express law of emancipation, however, failed even 
in Massachusetts ; the Legislature, doubtless, apprehending that 
such a measure, by alienating the slaveholders, would increase 
the number and power of the Tories ; but in 1777, a privateer 
having brought a lot of captured slaves into Jamaica, and adver- 
tised them for sale, the General Court, as the legislative assembly 
was called, interfered, and had them set at liberty. 

The first continental Congress which resolved to resist the usur- 
pations and oppressions of Great Britain by force, had already de- 
clared that our struggle would be "for the cause of human nature," 
which the Congress of 1776, under the lead of Thomas Jefferson, 
expanded into the noble affirmation of the right of " all men of 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness " contained in the im- 
mortal preamble to the Declaration of Independence. 

A like everment that, " All men are born free and equal," was 
in 1780 inserted in the Massachusetts Bill of Right ; and the Su- 
preme Court of that State, in 1783, on an indictment of a master 
for assault and battery, held this declaration at bar to slave-hold- 
ing henceforth in the State. 

A similar clause in the second constitution of New Hampshire, 
was held by the courts of that State to secure freedom to every 
child, born therein after its adoption. Pennsylvania in 1780, passed 
an act prohibiting the further introduction of slaves, and secur- 
ing freedom to all persons born in that State thereafter. 

Connecticut and Rhode Island passed similar acts in 1784, Vir- 
ginia, 1778, on motion of Mr. Jefferson, prohibiting the further im- 
importation of slaves ; and in 1782, removed all legal restrictions 
on emancipation. Maryland adopted both of these in 1783. 

North Carolina, in 1786, declared the introduction of slaves into 



406 HORACE GREELEY 

that State " of evil consequences and highly impolitic," and im- 
posed a duty of £5 per head thereon. 

New York and New Jersey followed the example of Virginia and 
Maryland, including the domestic in the same interdict with the 
foreign slave trade. Neither of these States, however, declared a 
general emancipation until many years thereafter, and slavery did 
not wholly cease in New York until about 1830, nor in New Jersey 
till a much later date. The distinction of free and slave States, 
with the kindred assumption of a natural antagonism between 
the North and South, was utterly unknown to the men of the 
Revolution. Before the Declaration of Independence, but during 
the intense ferment which preceded it, and distracted public atten- 
tion from everything else, Lord Mansfield had rendered his judg- 
ment from the King's Bench, which expelled slavery from Eng- 
land, and ought to have destroyed it in the colonies as well. 

The plaintiff in this famous case was James Somerset, a native 
of Africa, carried to Virginia as a slave, taken thence by his master 
to England, and there incited to resist the claim of his master to 
his services, and assert his right to liberty. 

In the first recorded case, involving the legality of modern 
slavery in England, it was held (1697) that negroes, " being usually 
bought and sold among merchants as merchandise, and also being 
infidels, there might be a property in them sufficient to maintain 
travel." But this was overruled by Chief Justice Holt from the 
King's Bench (1697,) ruling that "so soon as a negro lands in Eng- 
land he is free ; " and again, (1702) that " there is no such thing as 
a slave by the law of England." 

This judgment proving exceedingly troublesome to planters and 
merchants from slaveholding colonies visiting the mother country 
with their servants, the merchants concerned in the American 
trade, in 1729, procured from Yorke and Talbot, the Attorney-Gen- 
eral and Solicitor-General of the Crown, a written opinion, that 
negroes, legally enslaved elsewhere, might be held as slaves in Eng- 
land, and that even baptism was no bar to the master's claim. This 
opinion was, in 1749, held to be sound law by Yorke, (now Lord 
Hardwicke,) sitting as judge, on the ground that, if the contrary 
ruling of Lord Holt were upheld, it would abolish slavery in Ja- 
maica or Virginia, as well as in England ; British law being para- 
mount in each. 

Thus the law stood, until Loru Mansfield, in Somerset's case, 
reversed it with evident reluctance, and after having vainly endeav- 
ored to bring about an accommodation between the parties. When 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 407 

delay would serve no longer, and a judgment must be rendered, 
Mansfield declared it in these memorable words : 

"We cannot direct the law ; the law must direct us. * * * 
The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being 
introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive 
law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion, and 
time itself, whence it was created, is erased from the memory. It 
is so odious, that nothing can be sufficient to support it but positive 
law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from the 
decision, 1 cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law 
of England, and therefore the black must be discharged. 

The natural, if not necessary effect of this decision on slavery in 
these colonies, had their connection with the mother country been 
continued, is sufficiently obvious. 

SLAVERY UNDER THE CONFEDERATION. 

The disposition or management of unpeopled territories, pertain- 
ing to the thirteen recent colonies, now confederated as independ- 
ent States, early became a subject of solicitude and of bickering 
among those States, and in Congress. 

By the terms of their charters, some of the colonies had an indef- 
inite extension westwardly, and were only limited by the power 
of the grantor. Many of these charters conflicted with each other 
— the same territory being included withiu the limits of two 01 
more totally distinct colonies. 

As the expenses of the Revolutionary struggle began to bear 
heavily on the resources of the States, it was keenly felt by some, 
that their share in the advantages of the expected triumph, would 
be less than that of others. 

Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, North Caroli- 
na and Georgia, laid claim to spacious dominions outside of their 
proper boundaries; while New Hampshire, (save in Vermont,) 
Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and South Caro- 
lina, possessed no such boasted resources, to meet the war debts 
constantly augmenting. 

They urged, therefore, with obvious justice, that these unequal 
advantages ought to be surrendered, and all the lands included 
within the territorial limits of the Union, but outside of the proper 
and natural boundaries of the several States, respectively, should 
be ceded to, and held by Congress, in trust for the common benefit 
of all the States, and their proceeds employed in satisfaction of the 
debts and liabilities of the Confederation. This reasonable requi- 
sition was ultimately, but with some reservations, responded to. 



408 HORACE GREELEY 

Virginia reserved a sufficiency beyond the Ohio, to furnish the 
bounties promised to her revolutionary officers and soldiers. Con- 
necticut, a western reserve, since largely settled from the parent 
State. Massachusetts reserved five millions of acres, located in 
western New York, which she claimed to be entitled, by her char- 
ter, to own. 

In either of these cases, the foe only was reserved, the sovereign- 
ty being surrendered. The cessions were severally made, during, 
or directly after the close of the Revolutionary "War. And one of 
the most obvious duties devolved on the Continental Congress, 
which held its sessions in Philadelphia, directly after the close of 
that exhausting struggle, was the framing of an Act or Ordinance 
for the government of the vast domain, thus committed to its care 
and disposal. The responsible duty of framing this Ordinance, 
was devolved by Congress on a select Committee, consisting of 
Mr. Jefferson of Va., (Chairman,) Chase of Md., and Howell of R. 
I. ; who, in due time, reported a plan for the government of the 
Western Territory, contemplating the whole region included with- 
in our boundaries, west of the old thirteen States, and as far South, 
as our 31st degree of North latitude ; territory as yet partially ced- 
ed to the Confederation, but which was expected to be so, and em- 
bracing several of our present slave States. This plan contempla- 
ted the ultimate division of this Territory, into seventeen States, 
eight of them situated below the parallel of the Falls of the Ohio, 
(now Louisville,) and nine above it. Among other rules reported 
from this Committee, by Mr. Jefferson, for the government of this 
vast region, was the following : 

That after the year 1800, of the Christian era, there shall be neith- 
er slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, oth- 
erwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have 
been convicted to be personally guilty. 

April 19, 1784. — Congress having the aforesaid Report under 
consideration, Mr. Spaight of N. C, moved the striking out of the 
above paragraph. Mr. Read, of S. C, seconded the motion. 

The ays and nays, being required by Mr. Howell, were ordered, 
and put in this form : " Shall the words moved to be stricken out, 
si and ?" and decided as follows : 

New Hampshire Mr. Foster, ay 

" " Mr. Blenvilt, ay 

Massachusetts, Mr. Gerry, ay 

" Mr. Partridge, ay 

Rhode Island, Mr. Ellery, ay 

" " Mr. Howell, ay 





AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 


•409 




Connecticut, 


Mr. Sherman, 


ay 




tt 


Mr. "Wadsworth, 


ay 




New York, 


Mr. DeWitt, 


ay 




tt <( 


Mr. Perine, 


ay 




New Jersey, 


Mr. Dick, 


ay 




Pennsylvania, 


Mr. Mifflin, 


ay 




tt 


Mr. Montgomery, 


ay 




tt 


Mr. Hand, 


ay 




Maryland, 


Mr. McHenry, 


no 




tt 


Mr. Stone, 


no — divided. 




Virginia, 


Mr. Jefferson, 


ay 




« 


Mr. Hardy, 


no 




tt 


Mr. Mercer, 


no 




North Carolina, 


Mr. Williajnson, 


ay 




tt tt 


Mr. SpaighV-— __^ 


no 




South Carolina, 


Mr. Read, 


no 




tt tt 


Mr. Beresford, 


no 





So the question was lost, and the Avords were struck out. 

Last— although six States voted aye, to only three nay ; and 
though of the members present, fifteen voted for, to six against, 
Mr. Jefferson's proposition. But the articles of confederation re- 
quired a vote of nine States to carry a proposition ; and failing to 
receive so many, this comprehensive exclusion of slavery from the 
Federal Territories, was defeated. The ordinance, thus depleted, 
after undergoing some further amendments, was finally approved 
April 23d — all the delegates hut those from South Carolina, voting 
in the affirmative. In 1787, the last Continental Congress, sitting 
in New York simultaneously with the convention at Philadelphia, 
which framed our Federal Constitution, took up the suhject of the 
government of the Western Territory, raising a committee thereon, 
of which Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, was Chairman. That 
committee reported (July 11th,) "an Ordinance for the government 
of the Territory of the United States, northioest of the Ohio," — 
the larger area contemplated by Mr. Jefferson's hill not having been 
ceded by the Southern States claiming dominion over it. This bill 
embodied many of the provisions originally drafted and reported 
by Mr. Jefferson, but with some modification, aud concludes with 
six unalterable articles of perpetual compact, the last of them as 
folio we: " There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servi- 
tude in the said Territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, 
whereof the parties shall be duly convicted." To this was added, 
prior to its passage, the stipulation for the delivery of fugitives 
from labor or service, soon after embodied in the Federal Consti- 



410 HORACE GREELEY 

tuticm ; and in this shape, the entire ordinance was adopted (July 
13th,) by a unanimous vote, Georgia and the Carolinas concurring. 

UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. 

The old Articles of Confederation having proved inadequate to 
the creation and maintenance of a capable and efficient national or 
central authority, a convention of delegates from the several States 
was legally assembled in Philadelphia, in 1787— George Washing- 
ton, president ; and the result of its labors was our present Federal 
Constitution, though some amendments, mainly of the nature ot 
restrictions on Federal power, were proposed by the several State 
conventions assembled, to pass upon that Constitution, and adopt- 
ed. The following are all the provisions of that instrument, which 
are presumed to relate to the subject of slavery : 

(Preamble :) We, the people of the United States, in order to 
form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
quility, provide for the common defense, promote the general wel- 
fare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United 
States of America. 

Art. I, § 1. All legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested 
in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate 
and House of Representatives. 

§ 2. * * * Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor- 
tioned among the several States which may be included within this 
Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be de- 
termined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including 
those bound to servitude for a term of years, and excluding Indi- 
ans not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. 

§ 9. The migration or importation of such persons, as any of the 
States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro- 
hibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808 ; but a tax or duty 
may be imposed, not exceeding ten dollars on each person. 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspend- 
ed, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety 
may require it. 

No bill of attainder, or ex post facto laws shall be passed. 

Art. Ill, § 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist 
only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, 
giving them aid and comfort. 

Art. IV, § 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the 
priviliges of citizens in the several States. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 411 

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law 
or regulation therein, he discharged from such service or labor, 
but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such ser- 
vice or labor may be due. 

§ 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this 
Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jur- 
isdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junc- 
tion of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent 
of the Legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Con- 
gress. 

The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all need- 
ful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property 
belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this Constitution 
shall be so construed as to predjudice any claims of the United 
States, or of any particular State. 

§ 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this 
Union, a Republican form of government, and shall protect each of 
them against invasion ; and on application of the Legislature, or of 
the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be convened, against 
domestic violence. 

Art. VI. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States, 
which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all the treaties made, 
or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, 
shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every State 
shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of 
any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The above are all — and perhaps more than all — the clauses of the 
Constitution, that have been quoted on one side or the other as 
bearing upon the subject of slavery. It will be noted that the 
word " slave " or " slavery " does not appear therein. 

Mr. Madison, who was a leading and observant member of the 
convention, and who took notes of its daily proceedings, affirms 
that this silence was designed — the convention being unwilling that 
the Constitution of the United States should recognize property in 
human beings. In passages where slaves are presumed to be con- 
templated, they are uniformly designated as " persons," never as 
property. Contemporary history proves that it was the belief of 
at least a large portion of the delegates, that slavery could not long 
survive the final stoppage of the slave trade, which was expected 
to (and did,) occur in 1808. And, were slavery this day banished 
forever from the country* there might, indeed, be some superflu- 
ous stipulations in the Federal compact or charter ; but there are 



412 H )RACE GREELEY 

none which need be repealed, or essentially modified. A direct 
provision for the restoration of fugitive slaves to their masters, 
was, at least once, voted down by the convention. Finally, the 
clause respecting persons "held at service or labor," was proposed 
by Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, and adopted with little or no op- 
position. The following among the amendments to the Constitu- 
tion, proposed by the ratifying conventions of one or more States, 
and adopted, are supposed by some to bear on the questions relative 
to slavery: 

Art. I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment 
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thei'eof ; or abridging 
the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or of the rights of the peo- 
ple peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a 
redress of grievances. 

Art. II. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security 
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall 
not be infringed. 

Art. V. No person shall be * * * deprived of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law; nor shall private property 
be taken for public use without just compensation." 

CESSIONS OF SOUTHERN TERRITORY. 

The State of Kentucky was set off from the State of Virginia, in 
1790, by mutual agreement, and admitted into the Union by act of 
Congress, passed February 4, 1791 ; to take effect June 1, 1792. It 
was never a territory of the United States, nor under Federal jur- 
isdiction, except as a State, and inherited slavery from the " Old 
Domain." 

The State of North Carolina, like several others, claimed, during 
and after the Revolution, that her territory extended westward to 
the Mississippi. The settlers west of the Alleghanies, resisted this 
claim, and a portion of them assumed to establish (1784-5,) the 
State of Frankland, in what is now East Tennessee ; but North 
Carolina forcibly resisted and subverted this, and a considerable 
portion of the people of the embroy State, derided its authority, 
and continued to act and vote as citizens of North Carolina. A 
delegate ("William Cocke,) was sent from Frankland to the Conti- 
nental Congress, but was not received by that body. 

On the 22nd of December, 1789, however — one month after her 
ratification of the Federal Constitution — North Carolina passed an 
act, ceding, on certain conditions, all her territory west of her pres- 
ent limits, to the United States. Among the conditions exacted by 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 413 

her, and agreed to by Congress, (Act approved April 21, 790,) is 
the following : 

Provided, always, That no regulations made, or to he made by 
Congress, shall tend to emancipate slaves. 

Georgia, in like manner, ceded (April 2, 1802,) the Territories ly- 
ing west of her present limits, now forming the States of Alabama 
and Mississippi. Among the conditions exacted by her, and accept- 
ed by the United States, is the following : 

Fifthly. That the Territory thus ceded, shallbecome a State, and 
be admitted into the Union, as soon as it shall contain sixty thou- 
sand free inhabitants, or, at an earlier pei'iod, if Congress shall 
think it expedient, on the same conditions and restrictions, with 
the same privileges, and in the same manner, as is provided in the 
Ordinance of Congress, of the 13th day of July, 1787, for the gov- 
ernment of the western Territory of the United States; which Or- 
dinance shall, in all its parts, extend to the territory contained in 
the present act of cession, the article only excepted, which forbids 
slavery. 

EARLY ATTEMPTS TO OVERRIDE THE ORDINANCE. 

When Ohio (1802-3,) was made a State, the residue of the vast 
regions, originally conveyed by the Ordinance of '87, was contin- 
ued under Federal pupilage, by the name of " Indian Territory," 
whereof Wm. Henry Harrison (since President,) was appointed 
GoA^ernor. 

An earnest, though quiet effort, was made by the Virginia ele- 
ment, which the location of her military bounty warrants on the 
soil of Ohio, had infused into that embroy State, to have slavery 
for a limited term authorized in her first Constitution ; but it was 
strenuously resisted by the New England element, which was far 
from considerable, and defeated. The Virginians either had, or 
professed to have the countenance of President Jefferson, though 
his hostility to slavery, as a permanent social state, was undoubt- 
ed. It was quite commonly argued that, though slavery was in- 
jurious in the long run, yet, as an expedient while clearing away 
the heavy forests, opening settlements in the wilderness, and sur- 
mounting the inevitable hardships and privations of border life, it 
might be tolerated, and even regarded with favor. 

Accordingly, the new Territory of Indiana made repeated efforts 
to procure a relaxation in her favor, of the restrictive clause of the 
Ordinance of ? 87, one of them through the instrumentality of a 
Convention, assembled in 1802-3, and presided over by the Terri- 
torial Governor ; so he, with the great body of his fellow-delegates, 



414 HORACE GREELEY 

memorialized Congress, among other things, to suspend tempora- 
rily, the operation of the sixth article of the Ordinance aforesaid. 

This memorial was referred in the House, to a select Committee 
of three, two of them from slave States, with the since celebrated 
John Randolph, as Chairman. On the 2nd of March, 180;>, Mr. 
Randolph made, what appears to have been a unanimous report 
from this Committee, of which we give so much as relates to slav- 
ery — as follows : 

The rapid population of the State of Ohio sufficiently evinces, 
in the opinion of your Committee, that the labor of slaves is not 
necessary to promote the growth and settlement of colonies in 
that region. 

That this labor — demonstrably the dearest of any — can only be 
employed in the cultivation of products, more valuable than any 
known to that quarter of the United States ; that the Committee 
deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to impair a provision 
wisely calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of the 
north-western country, and to give strength and security to that 
extensive frontier. 

In the salutary operation of this sagacious and benevolent re- 
straint, it is believed that the inhabitants of Indiana will, at no very 
distant day, find ample remuneration for a temporary privation of 
labor, and of emigration. 

The Committee proceed to discuss other subjects, set forth in the 
prayer of the memorial, and conclude with eight resolves, whereof 
the only one relating to slavery, is as follows : 

Resolved, That it is inexpedient to suspend, for a limited time, 
the operation of the sixth article of the compact between the orig- 
inal States, and the people and States west of the river Ohio. 

This Report, having been made at the close of the session, was 
referred at the next, to a new Committee, whereof Caesar Rodney, 
a new Representative from Delaware, was Chairman. Mr. Rodney, 
from this Committee, reported, (February 17, 180-4,) 

That, taking into their consideration, the facts stated in the said 
memorial and petition, they are induced to believe that a qualified 
suspension, for a limited time, of the sixth article of compact be- 
tween the original States and the people and States west of the 
river Ohio, might be productive of benefit and advantage to said 
Territory. 

The Report goes on to discuss the other topics embraced in the 
Indiana memorial, and concludes with eight resolves, of which the 
first (and only one relative to slavery,) is as follows : 

Mesolved, That the sixth article of the Ordinance of 1787, which 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 415 

prohibited slavery within the said Territory, he suspended in a 
qualified manner, for ten years, so as to permit the introduction of 
slaves, horn \pthin the United States, from any of the individual 
States ; provided, that, such individual State does not permit the 
importation of slaves from foreign countries : and provided, fur- 
ther, that the descendants of all such slaves shall, if males, be free 
at the age of twenty-five years, and, if females, at the age of twen- 
ty-one years. 

The House to no action on this Report. 

The original memorial from Indiana, with several additional 
memorials of like purport, was again, in 1805-6, referred by the 
House to a select Committee, whereof Mr. Garnett of "Virginia, 
was Chairman ; who, on the 14th of February, 1806, made a report 
in favor of the prayer of the petitioners, as follows : 

That, having attentively considered the fact stated in the said 
petitions and memorials, they are of opinion that a qualified sus- 
pension, for a limited time, of the sixth article of compact between 
the original States, and the people and States west of the river 
Ohio, would be beneficial to the people of the Indiana Territory. 

The suspension of this article, is an object almost universally de- 
sired in that Territory. It appears to your Committee, to be a 
question entirely different from that between slavery and freedom ; 
inasmuch as it would merely occasion the removal of persons already 
slaves, from one part of the country to another. The good effect 
of this suspension, in the present instance, would be to accelerate 
the population of that Territory, hitherto retarded by the opera- 
tion of that article of compact, as slave-holders emigrating into the 
"Western country, might then indulge any preference which they 
might feel for a settlement in the Indiana Territory, instead of 
seeking, as they are now compelled to do, settlements in other 
States or countries, permitting the introduction of slaves. 

The condition of the slaves themselves, would be much amelior- 
ated by it, as it is evident from experience, that the more they are 
separated and diffused, the more care and attention are bestowed 
on them by their masters— each proprietor having it in his power 
to increase their comforts and conveniences, in proportion to the 
smallness of their members. 

The dangers, too, (if any are to be apprehended,) from too large 
a black population existing in any one section of country, would 
certainly be very much diminished, if not entirely removed. But 
whether dangers are to be feared from this source or not, it is cer- 
tainly an obvious dictate of sound policy to guard against them, 
as far as possible. 



416 HORACE GREELEY 

If this danger does exist, or there is any cause to apprehend it, 
and our western brethren are not only willing but desirous to aid 
us in taking precautions, against it, would it not be £o accept their 
assistance ? 

We should benefit ourselves, without infusing them, as their 
population must always so far exceed any black population which 
can ever exist in that country, as to render the idea of danger from 
that source chimerical. 

After discussing other subjects embodied in the Indiana memor- 
ial, the committee close with a series of resolves, which they com- 
mend to the adoption of the House. 

The first and only one german to our subject is as follows : 

Resolved, That the sixth article of the Ordinance of 1787, which 
prohibits slavery within the Indiana Territory, be suspended for 
ten years, so as to permit the introduction of slaves, born within 
the United States, from any of the individual States. 

This report and resolve Avere committed and made a special 
order on the Monday following, but were never taken into con- 
sideration. 

At the next session, a fresh letter from Gov. William Heiiry 
Harrison, inclosing resolves of the Legislative Council and House 
of Representatives in favor of suspending, for a limited period, the 
sixth article of compact aforesaid, was received (Jan. 21, 1807) and 
referred to a select committee, whereof, Mr. B. Parke, delegate 
from said Territory, was made Chairman. 

The entire Committee (Mr. Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, 
being now Speaker) consisted of Messrs. Alston, of North Caro- 
lina ; Masters, of New York; Morrow, of Ohio; Parke, of In- 
diana ; Rhea, of Tennessee ; Sandford, of Kentucky ; Trigg, of 
Virginia. 

Mr. Parke, from this committee, made (Feb. 12) a third report 
to the House in favor of granting the prayer of the memorialists. 
It is as follows : 

The resolution of the Legislative Council and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the Indiana Territory, relate to a suspension, for the 
term of ten years of the sixth article of compact between the 
United States and the Territories and States north-west of the 
river Ohio, passed the 13th July, 1787. 

That article declares that there shall be neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude in the said Territory. 

The suspension of the said article would operate an immediate 
and essential benefit to the Territory, as emigration to it will be 
inconsiderable for many years, except from those States where 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 417 

slavery is tolerated. And, although it is not considered expedient 
to force the population of the Territory, yet it is desirable to con- 
nect its scattered settlements, and, in admitted political rights, to 
place it on an equal footing* with the different States. 

From the interior situation of the Territory, it is not believed 
that slaves could ever become so numerous as to endanger the in- 
ternal peace or future prosperity of the country. The current of 
emigration flowing to the western country, the .Territories should 
all be opened to their introduction. 

The abstract question of Liberty and Slavery is not involved in 
the proposed measure, as slavery now exists to a considerable ex- 
tent in different parts of the Union ; it 'would not augment the 
number of slaves, but merely authorize the removal to Indiana of 
such as are held in bondage in the United States. 

If slavery is an evil, means ought to be devised to render it least 
dangerous to the community, and by which the hapless situation 
of the slaves would be most ameliorated ; and to accomplish these 
objects, no measure would be so effectual as the one proposed. 

The Committee, therefore, respectfully submit to the House the 
following resolution : 

Besolved, That it is expedient to suspend, from and after the 1st 
day of January, 1808, the sixth ai*ticle of compact between the 
United States and the Territories, and States north-west of the 
Ohio, passed the 13th day of July, 1787, for the term of ten years ! 
This report, with its predecessors, was committed, and made a 
a special order, but never taken into consideration. 

The" same letter of General Harrison, and resolves of the In 
diana Legislature, were submitted to the Senate, Jan. 21, 1877. 
They were laid on the table " for consideration," and do not ap- 
pear to have ever been referred at that session ; but at the next, or 
first session of the fourth Congress, which convened Oct. 26, 1807, 
the President (Nov. 7,) submitted a letter from Gen. Harrison and 
his Legislature — whether a new or the old one does not appear- 
and it was now referred to a select committee, consising of Messrs. 
J. Franklin, of North Carolina; JOtchel, of New Jersey, and 
Triffin, of Ohio. 

Nov. 13th, Mr. Franklin, from said Committee, reported as fol- 
lows : 

The Legislative Council and House of Representatives, in their 
resolutions, express their sense of the propriety of introducing 
slavery into their Territory, and solicit the Congress of the United 
States to suspend, for a given number of years, the sixth article of 

27 



418 HORACE GREELEY 

compact, in the ordinance for the government of the Territory 
northwest of the Ohio, passed the 13th day of July, 1887. 

That article declares: "There shall be neither slavery nor invol- 
untary servitude within the said Territory." 

The citizens of Clark County, in their remonstrance, express 
their sense of the impropriety of the measure, and solicit the Con- 
gress of the United States not to act on the subject, so as to permit 
the introduction of slaves into the Territory; at least, until their 
population shall entitle them to form a constitution and State gov- 
ernment. 

Your Committee, after duly considering the matter, respect- 
fully submit the following resolution : 

Resolved, That it is not expedient at this time to suspend the 
sixth article of compact for the government of the Temtory of the 
United States north-west of the river Ohio. 

And here ended, so far as we have been able to discover, the 
effort, so long and earnestly persisted in, to procure a suspension 
of the restriction in the Ordinance of 1787, so as to admit slavery, 
for a limited term, into the Territory lying between the Ohio and 
Mississippi rivers, now forming the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, Michigan and Wisconsin. 

THE FIRST MISSOURI STRUGGLE. 

The vast and indefinite Territory known as Louisiana, was ceded 
by France to the United States, in the year 1803, for the sum of 
$15,000,000, of which $3,750,000 was devoted to the payment of 
American claims on France. This Territory had just before been 
ceded by Spain to France, without pecuniary consideration. Slave- 
holding had long been legal therein, alike under Spanish and French 
rule, and the treaty of cession contained the following stipulation : 

Art. III. The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorpor- 
ated into the union of the United States, and admitted as soon as 
possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, 
to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of 
citizens of the United States ; and in the meantime they shall be 
maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, 
property, and the religion which they profess. 

The State of Louisiana, embodying the southern portion of this 
acquired Territory, was recognized by Congress in 1811, and fully 
admitted in 1812, with a State Constitution. Those who choose to 
dwell among the inhabitants of the residue of the Louisiana pur- 
chase, henceforth called Missouri Territory, continued to hold 
Blaves in its sparse and small, but increasing settlements, mainly 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 419 

in its south-eastern quarter, and a pro-slavery court — perhaps any 
court — would undoubtedly have pronounced slavery legal any- 
where on its vast expanse, from the Mississippi to the crest of the 
Rocky Mountains, if not beyond them, and from the Red river of 
Louisiana to the Lake of the Woods. 

The XVth Congress- assembled at Washington, on Monday, De- 
cember 1, 1817. Henry Clay was chosen Speaker of the House. 
Mr. John Scott appeared on the 8th, as delegate from Missouri Ter- 
ritory, and was admitted to a seat as such. On the 16th of March 
following, he presented petitions of sundry inhabitants of Missouri, 
in addition to similar petitions already presented by him, praying 
for the admission of Missouri into the Union as a State, which 
were, on motion, referred to a select committee, consisting of 
Messrs. Scott, of Missouri ; Poindexter, of Mississippi ; Robertson, 
of Kentucky; Hendricks, of Indiana; Livermore, of New Hamp- 
shire ; Mills, of Massachusetts, and Baldwin, of Pennsylvania. 

April 3d, Mr. Scott, from this committee, reported a bill to au- 
thorize the people of Missouri Territory to form a Constitution 
and State government, and for the admission of such State into the 
Union, as an equal footing with the original States ; which bill 
was read the first and second time, and sent to the Committee of 
the Whole, where it slept for the remainder of the session. That 
Cougress convened at Washington for its second session, on the 
16th of November, 1818. 

February 13th, the House went into Committee of the Whole — 
Gen. Smith, of Maryland, in the Chair — and took up the Missouri 
bill aforesaid, which was considered through that sitting, as also 
that of the 15th, when several amendments were adopted, the most 
important of which was the following, moved in committee by Gen. 
James Tallmadge, of Dutchess county, New York, (lately deceased.) 

And provided also, That the further introduction of slavery or 
involuntary servitude, be prohibited, except for the punishment of 
crimes, whereof the party shall be duly convicted ; and that all 
children of slaves, born within the said State, after the admission 
thereof into the Union, shall be free, but may be held to service 
until the age of twenty-five years. 

On coming out of committee, the yeas and nays were called on 
the question of agreeing to this amendment, which was sustained 
by the following vote, (taken first on agreeing to so much of it as 
precedes and includes the word " convicted :") 



420 HORACE GREELEY 

YEAS — FOR THE RESTRICTION. 

New Hampshire — Clifton Clagett, Samuel Hale, Arthur Liver- 
more and Nathaniel Upham — 4. 

Massachusetts, (then including Maine) — Benjamin Adams, Sam- 
uel C. Allen, Walter Folger, jr., Timothy Fullei', Joshua Gage, 
Enoch Lincoln, Elijah H. Mills, Marcus Morton, Jeremiah Nelson, 
Benjamin Orr, Thomas Rice, Nathaniel Ruggles, Zahdill Sampson, 
Nathaniel Silsbee and John Wilson — 15. 

Rhode Island — James B. Mason — 1. 

Connecticut — Sylvester Gilbert, Ebenezer Huntington, Jonathan 
O. Mosely, Timothy Pitkin, Samuel B. Sherwood, Nathaniel Terry 
and Thomas S. Williams — 7. 

Vermont — Samuel C. Crafts, William Huntei*, Orsamus C. Mer- 
rill, Charles Rich, Mark Richards^5. 

New York — Oliver C. Comstock, John P. Cushman, John R. 
Drake, Benjamin Ellicott, Josiah Hasbrouch, John Herkimer, 
Thomas H. Hubbard, William Irving, Dorrance Kirtland, Thomas 
Lawyer, John Palmer, John Savage, Phillip J. Schuyler, John C. 
Spencer, Treadwell Scudder, James Tallmadgo, John W. Taylor, 
Caleb Tompkins, George Townsend, Peter H. Wendover, Rensse- 
laer Westerlo, James W. Walkin and Isaac Williams — 23. 

New Jersey — Ephraim Bateman, Benjamin Bennett, Charles Kin- 
sey, John Linn and Henry Southard — 5 

Pennsylvania — William Andei'son, Andrew Boden, Isaac Dar- 
lington, Joseph Heister, Joseph Hopkinson, Jacob Hostetter, Wil- 
liam Maclay, William P. Maclay, David Merchand, Robert Moore, 
Samuel Moore, John Mxirray, Alexander Ogle, Thomas Patterson, 
Levi Pawling, Thomas J. Rogers, John Sergeant, James M. Wal- 
lace, John Whiteside and William Wilson — 20. 

Ohio — Levi Barber, Philemau Beecher, John W. Campbell, Sam- 
uel Ilerrick and Peter Hitchcock — 5. 

Indiana — William Hendricks — 1. 

Delaware— Willard Hall— 1. 

Total yeas 87 — only one (the last named,) from a slave State. 

NAYS — AGAINST THE RESTRICTION. 

Massachusetts — John Holmes, Jonathan Mason and Henry 
Shaw — 3. 

New York — Daniel Cruger, David A. Ogden and Henry R. 
Storrs— 3. 

New Jersey — Joseph Bloomfield — 1. 

New Hampshire — John P. Parrot — 1. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 421 

Ohio — William Henry Harrison — 1. 

Illinois — John McLean — 1. 

[10 from Free States.] 

Delaware — Louis McLean-*— 1. 

Maryland — Archibald Austin, Thomas Baily ; Thomas Culbreth, 
Peter Little, George Peter, Philip Reed, Samuel Ringgold, Samuel 
Smith and Philip Stuart — 9. 

Virginia — William Lee Ball, Philip P. Barbour, Bourwell Bassett, 
William A Burwell, Edward Colston, Robert S. Garnett, James 
Johnson, William McCoy, Hugh Nelson, Thomas M. Nelson, John 
Pegram, James Pindall, James Pleasants, Ballard Smith, Alexan- 
der Smyth, Henry St. George Tucker and John Tyler — 18. 

North Carolina — Joseph H. Bryan, William Davidson, Weldon 
N. Edwards, Charles Fisher, Thomas H. Hall, James Owen, Sam- 
uel Sawyer, Thomas Little, Jesse Slocumb, James G. Smith, James 
Stewart, Felix Walker and Lewis Williams — 13. 

South Carolina — James Ervin, William Lowndes, Henry Mid- 
dleton, Wilson Nesbitt, Elbert Simkins and Sterling Tucker — 6. 

Georgia— Joel Abbot, Thomas W. Cobb, Zadoc Cook and William 
Terrell— 4. 

Kentucky — Richard C. Anderson, jr., Joseph Desha, Richard M. 
Johnson, Anthony New, Thomas Newton, George Robertson, 
Thomas Speed, David Trimble and David Walker — 9. 

Tennessee — William G. Blout, Francis Jones, George W. S. Marr 
and John Rhea — 4. 

Mississippi — George Poiudexler — 1. 

Louisiana — Thomas Butler — 1. 

Total nays, 76-10 from Free States, 66 from slave States. 

The House now proceeded to vote on the residue of the reported 
amendment (from the word " convicted " above,) which was like- 
wise sustained. Yeas 82 ; nays 78. 

Messrs. Barber and Campbell of Ohio, Linn of N. J., and Mason 
of R. I., who, on the former division voted yea, now voted nay. 

Messrs. Schuyler and Westerls of N. Y., (yeas before,) did not 
vote now. Gen. Smith of Md., changed from nay before, to vea 
now. 

So the whole amendment — as moved by Gen. Tallmadge, in Com- 
mittee of the Whole, and there carried — was sustained, when re- 
ported to the House. 

Mr. Storrs of New York (opposed to the restriction,) now moved 
the striking out of so much of the bill, as provides that the new 
State shall be admitted into the Union " on an equal footing with 



422 HORACE GREELEY 

the original States " — which he contended, was nullified by the 
votes just taken. 

The House negatived the motion. 

Messrs. Desha of Ky., Cobb of Ala., and Rhea of Tenn., declared 
against the bill as amended. 

Messrs. Scott of Mo., and Anderson of Ky., preferred the bill as 
amended to none. 

The House ordered the bill, as amended, to a third reading ; 
yeas 98 ; nays 58. 

The bill thus passed the House next day, and was sent to the 
Senate. 

The following sketch of the debate on this question, (Feb. 15th,) 
appears in the Appendix to Nile's Register, Vol. XVI. 

House of Representatives, > 
Feb. 15, 1819. \ 

Mr. Tallmadge of New York, having moved the following 
amendment, on the Saturday preceding : 

And provided, that the introduction of slavery, or involuntary 
servitude, be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, 
whereof the party has been duly convicted, and that all children 
born within the said State, after the admission thereof into the 
Union, shall be declared free at the age of twenty -five years : 

The discovery of gold in California, and subsequently at Pike's 
Peak, led thousands of our people over the "Plains," to those 
wild and unsubdued regions, and opened a rugged pathway of 
civilization, over which a few of those belonging to the olden 
States, and fixed in business at home, were gradually induced to 
travel. Actuated by a desire to see that distant country, and 
learn something of its resources, and of the industry of the peo- 
ple who had gathered there. 

Mr. Greeley set out in May, 1859, from his home in New 
York, to make the journey from the Atlantic, " overland" to the 
Pacific. He wrote letters to the Tribune, from time to time, as 
he went forward across the continent, from the rising to the set- 
ting sun, describing the country, and narrating scenes and inci- 
dents along his journey. 

On his return home, his letters, thirty- three in number, were 
collected, and published in one volume, with the following title, 
and preface : 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 

AS 

OVERLAND JOURNEY, 

FKOM 

NEW YORK TO SAN FRANCISCO, 

IN 

THE SUMMER OF 1859, 

BY 

HORACE GREELEY. 



423 



PREFACE. 

The following letters, as is generally known, were written to the 
New York Tribune, during a journey through Kansas, Utah and 
California, last summer. No one can he more conscious than the 
writer, that they present the slightest possihle claims to literary 
merit, or enduring interest. Their place is among the thousand 
ephemeral productions of the press, on which the reading public, 
if good-natured, bestows a kindly glance, then charitably forgets 
them. Ten years hence, hardly a hundred persons will be able, 
without sustained effort, to recollect that these letters were ever 
printed. Hurriedly written, mainly in wagons, or under the rud- 
est tents, while closely surrounded by the (very limited) applian- 
ces and processes of pioneer meal getting, far from books of refer- 
ence, and often in the absence of even the commonest map, they 
deal with surfaces only, and these under circumstances which pre- 
clude the idea of completeness of information, or uniform accuracy 
of statement. 

The value of such a work, if value it have, must be sought in un- 
studied simplicity of narration, in the freshness of its observations, 
and in the truth of its averments, as transcripts of actual experi- 
ences and current impressions. 

By consulting and studying the reports of eminent official ex- 
plorers and pioneers, from Lewis and Clark, to Fremont and Lan- 
der, who have traversed the Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the 
Great Basin, a far more complete and reliable book might have 
been made, but one extending to several volumes, and of which 
the public does not seem to stand in conscious, urgent need. 



424 HORACE GREELEY 

That herewith submitted, though of far humbler pretensions, 
aas at least the merit of owing little or nothing to any other. If 
any excuse for printing these letters were wanted, it might be 
found in the fact that much of the ground passed over by the writ- 
er, was absolutely new — that is, it had never before been traversed 
and described. The route up Solomon's fork, and the upper por- 
tion of the Republican, from the forks of the Kansas to Cherry 
Creek ; that from Denver to the gold diggings in the Rocky Moun- 
tains, near Ralston's fork of Clear Creek ; the trail from Denver to 
Laramie, along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains ; and that 
from Salt Lake southwestwardly through central Utah to Pleasant 
Valley, and thence northwestwardly to the Humboldt at Gravelly 
Ford, are believed to stand in this category. 

But another reason for printing these hasty sketches, is found in 
the fact that very great and rapid changes in most of the region 
lying directly between Missouri and California, are inevitable. 
The Leavenworth Express route, through the heart of what, in 
June, is the buffalo region, which was hardly four weeks old 
when I traveled it, was soon after abandoned, and has reverted to 
the domain of the wolf and the savage ; while the rude beginning 
of a settlement I found, scarcely three weeks old, at " Gregory's 
Diggings," has since been "Mountain City," with its municipality, 
its newspaper, and its thousands of inhabitants ; and is now in its 
decline, having attained the ripe age of nearly half a year; Captain 
Simpson has, since July, completed his exploration of a military 
and mail route through central Utah, whereby more than a hun- 
dred miles of that I traveled are saved, and the detested Humboldt 
wholly avoided ; and Carson Valley, under the impetus of rich 
mineral discoveries, is rapidly increasing in population and con- 
sequence, and about to stand forth, the nucleus of the embryo Ter- 
ritory of Nevada. "Whoever visits California a few years hence, 
will doubtless find it greatty changed from the California so hasti- 
ly run over, but faithfully described by me- in August, 1859. 

Should, then, a few copies of this book, lost in the dustiest re- 
cess of some all-embracing, indiscriminate library, evade the trunk- 
makers to the close of the next decade, the antiquary of 1870 may 
derive gratification, if not instruction, from a contrast of the pop- 
ulous, enterprising, and thrifty central North America of his- day, 
with that same region overrun and roughly depicted by me in the 
summer of 1859. Should such prove the fact, I commend my hasty 
letters to his generous indulgence. H. G. 

New York, Nov. 1, 1859. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 425 

His first letter, with title and date, we give below : 

AN OVERLAND JOURNEY — FROM NEW YORK TO KANSAS. 

Atchison, Kansas, May 15, 1859. 

I left New York by Erie railroad, on Monday evening, the 9th 
inst., just as our fortnight of bright, hot, planting weather was 
closing. Two hours later, the gathered clouds burst upon us in a 
rain, which continued through the night, though the city was not 
refreshed by it till some hours later. We had glimpses of sunshine 
as we skirted the southern shore of lake Erie, on Wednesday, and 
some more after a heavy shower at Chicago on Thursday ; beside 
these, cloudy skies, easterly winds, and occasional rain, have been 
my portion since I bade adieu to the hot, dusty streets of New 
York. But it is breaking away as I write, and 1 hope to see Kan- 
sas, for the first time, under skies which image her sunny future 
rather than, her stormy past. 

Coining up the Erie road, I tried a "sleeping car " for the third 
time, and not very successfully. We all "retired" at ten o'clock, 
with a fair allowance of open windows and virtuous resolutions ; 
but the rain poured, the night was chill and damp ; and soon every 
orifice for the admission of external air, save the two or three hum- 
bug ventilators overhead, was shut, and a mephitic atmosphere 
produced, in which the soul of John G. Saxe might have disported 
and fancied it elysium. After gasping a while, like a netted fish 
on a hot sandbank, I rose to enter my solemn protest against all 
sleeping cars not provided with abundant and indefeasible means 
of ventilation. I tried one two nights later on the Michigan South- 
ern road, which served much better, though still far from perfect. 
It is very true that no arrangement can secure a healthy circulation 
of air by night, in any passenger car, while the popular ignorance 
is so dense, that the gi*eat majority imagine any atmosphere health- 
ful, which is neither too cold nor too hot, and rather laugh at the 
wit than pity the blindness of Saxe, in holding up to ridicule a wo- 
man who knows (and does,) better than to sit all night in a close 
car, with thirty or forty other human beings, all breathing an at- 
mosphere, which they, in twenty minutes, render absolutely poi- 
sonous ; but the builders of cars have no right to be ignorant ot 
the laws of life with which they tamper ; and two or three pre- 
sentments by grand juries, of the makers of unventilated cars, es- 
pecially sleeping cars, as guilty of manslaughter, would* exert a 
most salutary influence. I commend this public duty to the imme- 
diate consideration of jurors and prosecutors. 



426 HORACE GREELEY 

Stopping at Hornellsville, at seven next morning, I took the train 
for Buffalo thence at noon, and halted at Castile, to fulfill an en- 
gagement to speak at Pike, formerly in Alleghany, now in Wyom- 
ing county. I teft Pike for Castile at five on Wednesday morning ; 
took the cars to Buffalo at half past seven ; was in ample season for 
the Lake Shore train at ten ; ran into Cleveland a little after five ; 
left at six for Toledo, where we changed cars between ten and 
eleven, and wei-e in Chicago at seven next morning, as aforesaid. 

Along the south shore of Lake Erie, as in our own State, it was 
plain that the area plowed on or before the 11th of May, was great- 
er this year than ever before ; and well it might be, for the country 
was hardly ever so bare of food for man and beast, as in this same 
May of 1859. Flour is higher, and wheat and corn scarcely lower 
in Chicago than in New York or Liverpool ; oats nearly the same. 
Thousands of cattle, throughout the Prairie States, have died of 
starvation this Spring, though prairie hay might almost anywhere 
have been put up last Fall, at a cost of less than two dollars per 
ton ; Minnesota, with perhaps the best soil for winter wheat, in 
America, is buying flour in Chicago by the thousand barrels ; and 
I hear from different sections of this great granary of nations — 
from Blinois, from Iowa, from Missouri — of whole neighborhoods 
destitute alike of bread and of the wherewithal to buy it. Unpro- 
pitious as last season was, it does not fully explain this scarcity, 
especially of fodder. I trust the like will never occur to need ex- 
planation again. Coming down through Illinois from Chicago, 
south-westwardly, to Quincy, (268 miles,) it was gratifying to see 
how general are the effort and obvious resolve to look starvation 
out of countenance this year. Though the breadth of winter wheat 
was but moderate, owing to the incessant rains of last autumn, it 
is plain that the farmers began to plow and sow as early as possi- 
ble this Spring ; putting in first, Spring wheat, then oats, latterly 
corn ; and they mean to keep putting in corn and oats for a month 
yet. If Illinois and Iowa do not grow far more grain this year 
than ever before, it will hardly be the fault of the cultivators, for 
they are bent on doing their utmost. Considering their bad for- 
tune last year, this resolute industry does them credit; but they 
are generally in debt, out of money, and almost out of credit, and 
are making a final stand against the sheriff. I heartily wish them 
a good delivei*ance. And, despite the hard times, Illinois is grow- 
ing. There are new blocks in her cities, new dwellings in her ev- 
ery village, new breakings on this or that edge of almost every 
prairie. The short, young grass is being cropped by large herds of 
cattle, whose improved appearance within the last fortnight is said 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 427 

by those who have observed them from day to day, to be beyond 
credence on any testimony but that of eye-sight. Here, every 
horse or ox that can pull, is hitched to a plow or harrow whenever 
darkness or rain does not forbid ; and by plowing the dryest ridges 
first and seeding them, then taking the next dryest and serving 
them just so, nearly every cultivator can keep putting in seed at 
least four days per week from March till June. Many will plant 
corn this year till the middle of June, and even later, unless com- 
pelled sooner to desist, in order to commence cultivating that first 
planted. Then cultivating will require every hour till harvesting 
begins; and this (including haying,) will last till it is full time to 
plow for winter wheat. No busier season was ever seen than this 
is to be ; from the Hudson to the Mississippi, you see four horses 
or oxen at work to one in pasture ; and there are thousands of farm- 
ers who would plant or sow a quarter more, if they had grain to 
feed their teams, than they will now be able to do. There are few 
traveling in the cars, few idling about stores or taverns, but many 
in the fields. May a bounteous Heaven smile on their labors ! 

Illinois is just beginning to be cultivated. I presume she has no 
railroad along which half the land within a mile has ever been 
touched by a plow. Back from the roads, there is of course still 
less cultivation ; probably less than a tenth of her soil has even yet 
been unbroken. Possibly one-fourth of her spontaneous product of 
grass may now be eaten by animals that contribute to the susten- 
ance or comfort of man, though I think one-tenth would be nearer 
the mark. She has far more coal than Great Britain — I believe 
more than any other State — but has hardly yet begun to mine it. 
Her timber is not so excellent ; she lacks pine and all the ever- 
greens, but she is bountifully and cheaply supplied with these from 
Michigan and Wisconsin. Boards are sent through her canal from 
Chicago to the Illinois, and thence around by St. Louis and up the 
Missouri, to build houses in Kansas and Nebraska. Her timber, 
such as it is, palpably increases from year to year, and will in- 
crease still more rapidly as roads and plowing check the sweep of 
prairie fires. If her prairies were more rolling, they would be 
dryer and could be worked earlier ; . but then they would wash 
more, and probably have less depth and richness of soil. 

Doubtless, the child is born who will see her a State of ten mil- 
lions of people, one million of them inhabiting her commercial em- 
porium. 

I stopped over night at Quincy, and took the steamboat Pike at 
half past seven next morning, for Hannibal, twenty miles below. 
I had repeatedly crossed the Mississippi, but this was my first pas- 



428 HORACE GREELEY 

sage on it. The river is very high, so that its banks are submerged, 
and the water flows under the trees which line every shore. Islets 
covered with trees and shrubbery, abound ; the bluffs recede some 
miles on either hand, and are softened to the view by the deep 
green of the young foliage ; hardly a clearing breaks the uniformi- 
ty of the almost tropical prospects ; though here and there a mis- 
erable little hut, in the last stages of decay, tells where a chopper 
of steamboat-wood held on, until whisky or the ague took him 
off. 

In flood, as it is, the river is turbid, not muddy, and pursues its 
course with a deliberation and gravity, befitting the majestic Father 
of Waters, to whom, with head bare and reverent spirit, I wave a 
respectful adieu. For our good boat has reached Hannibal, the first 
point helow Quincy, at which the Missouri bluff approaches the 
river, and whence the valley of a streamlet makes up through the 
hills, to the broad, level prairie. 

Hannibal is pleasantly situated on the interval of the creek, and 
up the side of the bluff, so as to be entirely commanded by a steam- 
hoat passing up the river. It is a bustling, growing village, of some 
four thousand inhabitants, which the new "Hannibal and St. Jo- 
seph Railroad " has suddenly raised from local to general impor- 
tance. Like most villages on the great western rivers, it has no 
wharf, and the river is now threatening to eat away a part of the 
bank on which railroad and steamboat freight is heaped in wild 
disorder. Its new consequence must soon work a change. I look 
for a wharf and a great storehouse, when I next land or embark 
here. 

The Pike rounded to, and sent us ashore ; the train backed down 
to within forty feet of her ; the passengers got aboard the cars, 
followed by their baggage, and in half an hour we were streaming 
up through the woody ravine, to emerge on one of the largest prai- 
ries on northern Missouri. Across this — or, rather, along it — we 
took our course westward, almost as the crow flies, to St. Joseph, 
on the Missouri, two hundred and six miles distant, which we 
reached in a little more than twelve hours, or at half past ten, last 
evening. 

The road was completed in hot haste last winter, in order to profit 
by the "Pike's Peak" immigration, this Spring; no gravel is 
found on this line, unless in the immediate vicinity of the Missis- 
sippi ; and it was raining pitilessly for the second day, nearly 
throughout, so that the roadbed was a causeway of mortar or ooze, 
into which the passing trains pressed the ties, first on one side, 
then on the other, making the track as bad as track could well be. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 429 

A year hence, it must be better, even with the frost just coming 
out of the ground ; after a dry week, it will probably be quite fair ; 
but yesterday it afforded more exercise to the mile, than any other 
railroad I ever traveled. About one-third of the way from Hanni- 
bal, it is intersected by the " North Missouri Railroad," from St. 
Louis, which city is about one hundred miles further from St. Jo- 
seph, than Hannibal is ; the train from St. Louis starting at 5 a. M. 
to connect with ours, which ought to have left Hannibal at half 
past nine. 

Each road is completed, so that St. Louis, as well as Hannibal, is 
within a day's ride by rail, of St. Joseph, which faces Kansas 
almost up to the Nebraska line. Though the day was dreary, I 
noted, with deep interest, the country through which we passed, 
which disappointed me in these respects : 

1. The land is better than I had supposed; 2. It is of more uni- 
form grade — hardly anything worth calling a hill being seen after 
rising the bluff from the Mississippi, till we come in sight of the 
bluffs which enclose the Missouri ; 3. There is more prairie, and 
less timber, than I had expected ; and 4. There are infinitely less 
population and improvement. 

Of course, this road was run so as to avoid the more settled dis- 
tricts, and thus to secure a larger allotment of the public lands, 
whereof the alternate sections, for a width of five or six miles, 
were granted to the State, in aid of its construction ; but I had not 
believed it possible to run a railroad through Northern Missouri, 
so as to strike so few settlements. 

Palmyra, near the Mississippi, and Chillicothe, a hundred miles 
further west, are county seats, and villages of perhaps two hundred 
dwellings each ; besides these, there is no village of any size, un- 
less it be one of those we passed in rain and darkness, as we neared 
the Missouri. 

For some fifty miles after passing Palmyra, we traversed a level 
prairie, admirably grassed, but scarcely broken, save where the 
needs of the railroad had called up two to half a dozen petty build- 
ings. ' 

Yes, for the most of the way, timber was in sight on one side, or 
on both, often within a mile ; and the soil, though but a thin, black 
mold resting on a heavy clay, therefore not so well adapted to 
grain as prairie soils are apt to be, is admirably fitted for stock- 
growing. 

It seems incredible that such land, in a State forty years old, could 
have remained unsettled till now. 

"We traversed other prairies, five to twenty miles long, separated 
by the richest intervals, skirting Grand River, and sundry smaller 



430 HORACE GREELEY 

streams, well timbered with elm, hickory, etc. Interposed between 
tbe prairies, are miles on miles of gently rolling ridges, thinly cov- 
ered with white oak, and forming "oak openings," or "timbei-ed 
openings," while a thick growth of young wood, now that the an- 
nual fires are somewhat checked by roads and cultivation, is com- 
ing forward under the full-grown oaks, the whole forming one of 
the most beautiful and inviting regions [ ever passed over. They 
tell me that the rolling prairies near St. Joseph, to which we pass- 
ed after dark, are richer and finer than those I saw ; but they 
surely need not be. "With such soil and timber, the Mississippi on 
one side, the Missouri on the other, and a railroad connecting them, 
it must be that northern Missouri is destined to increase its popu- 
lation speedily and rapidly. 

I am sure beef can be made there at less cost per pound than in 
any other locality I ever visited. 

St. Joseph is a busy, growing town, of some ten thousand in- 
habitants. It is beautifully situated on a bend of the Missouri, 
partly on its interval (which the river is gouging out and carrying 
away,) and partly on the southward slope of the bluff, which rises 
directly from the river bank, on the north end of the town. Other 
towns on the Missouri may have a grander future ; I doubt that 
any has a finer location. 

The river bank must be piled or docked, or in some way forti- 
fied against the boiling current which sets against the town-site 
with fearful power and effect. I believe this is further west than 
any other point reached by a railroad connecting eastward with 
the Atlantic ports. At all events, the travel and a part of the 
trade of the vast wilderness watered by the upper Missouri and 
its tributaries, seem to center here. 

At the City Hotel, where I stopped, some of the guests were of 
and from Salt Lake ; one, an Indian trader from the head waters 
of the Columbia, who came down the Yellow Stone from the 
Rocky Mountains last Fall in a canoe, and is now returning. 

Army officers and sutlers for the forts far up the Missouri and 
its tributaries, are constantly, arriving and departing. I may 
never see St. Joseph again, but she will long be to me a pleasant 
recollection. 

Elwood, in Kansas, opposite, is a small place, which must grow 
with the country behind her. The mighty, boiling flood, Avhich 
is tearing away the soil of St. Joseph, is piling up new bars and 
banks in front of, and just below Elwood, rendering approach to 
her wharf (if wharf she has or should have,) difficult for river 
steamboats, and thus shutting her out from the up-river trade. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 431 

I took passage from St. Joseph for this place at eight this morn- 
ing on the good steamer Platte Valley, Captain Coursey, and de- 
fied the chill east wind, and damp, cold atmosphere, to take my 
first lesson in Missouri navigation. The distance by water is some 
forty miles ; by land, considerably less ; the river being here, as 
everywhere crooked and capricious. I regretted to note that it 
tends, if unchecked, to grow worse and worse ; the swift, current 
rapidly forming a bank below every projecting point, and thus 
setting the stream with everincreasing force against the yielding 
crumbling mold or silt of the interval which forms the opposite 
shore, which is thus rapidly undermined and falls in, to be min- 
gled with and borne away by the resistless flood. The banks are 
almost always nearly perpendicular, and are seldom more than 
two or three feet above the surface of the water at its present high 
stage, so that the work of devastation is constantly going on. 
The river is at once deep, swift, and generally narrow — hardly so 
wide in the average as the Hudson below Albany, though carry- 
ing the water of thirty Hudsous. It cannot be half a mile wide 
opposite this city. Its muddiness is beyond all description ; its 
color and consistency are those of thick milk porridge ; you could 
not discern an egg in a glass of it. A fly floating in a teacup of 
this dubious fluid, an eighth of an inch below the surface would be 
quite invisible. 

With its usually bold bluffs, two or three hundred feet high, 
now opposing a rocky barrier of its sweep, now receding to a dis- 
tance of two or three miles, giving place to an interval, many feet 
deep, of the richest mold, usually covered by a thrifty growth of 
elm, cotton-wood, etc., its deep, rapid, boiling, eddying current, 
its drifting logs and trees, often torn from its banks by its floods, 
and sometimes planted afresh in its bed, so that the tops rise an- 
gularly to a point just below or just above the surface of the 
water, forming the sawyer or snag so justly dreaded by steam- 
boats, the Missouri stands alone among the rivers of the earth, 
unless China can show its fellow. I have not yet learned to like 
it. Atchison gives me my first foot-hold on Kansas. It was long 
a border-ruflian nest, but has shared the fortunes of many such in 
being mainly bought out by free State men, who now rule, and 
for the most part own it. For the last year, its growth has been 
quite rapid ; of its four or five hundred dwellings, I think two- 
thirds have been built within that period. 

The Missouri at this point runs further to the west than else- 
where in Kansas ; its citizens tell me that the great roads west- 
ward to Utah, etc., from St. Joseph on the north, and from Leav- 



432 HORACE GREELEY 

enworth on the south, pass within a few miles of Atchison when 
thrice as far from their respective starting-points. 

Hence, the Salt Lake mail, though made up at St. Joseph, is 
brought hither by steamboat, and starts overland from this place ; 
hence, many trains are made up here for Laramie, Green River, 
Fort Hall, Utah, and I hear even for Santa Fee. 

I have seen several twelve-ox teams, drawing heavily loaded 
wagons, start for Salt Lake, etc., to-day ; there are others camped 
just outside the corporate limits, which have just come in ; while 
a large number of wagons from a carral (yard inclosure or en- 
campment) some two miles westward. A little further away, the 
tents and wagons of parties of gold-seekers, with faces set for 
Pike's Peak, dot the prairie ; one of them in charge of a grey-head, 
who is surely old enough to know better. 

Teamsters from Salt Lake, and teamsters about to start, lounge 
cn every corner ; I went out three or four miles on the high prai- 
rie this afternoon, and the furthest thing I could see was the white 
canvas of a moving train. I have long been looking for the West, 
and here it is at last. 

But I must break off somewhere to prepare for an early start 
for Leavenworth and Lawrence to-morrow, in order to reach 
Osawatamie next day in season to attend the Republican Conven- 
tion, which is to assemble at that place on Wednesday, the 18th. 

After having visited the gold regions near Pike's Peak and 
Denver, Mr. Greeley writes to the Tribune upon the subject, 
and one of his letters he moralizes in the following manner : 

But, will disemboweling these mountains in quest of go\d.pay t 

A very pregnant question. 

I answer — It will pay some ; it will fail to pay others. 

A few will be amply and suddenly enriched by finding " leads " 
and selling "claims;" some by washing those "claims ; " others 
by supplying the mountains with the four apparent necessa- 
ries of mining life — whiskey, coffee, flour and bacon ; others by 
robbing the miners of their hard earnings through the instrumen- 
tality of cards, roulette, and the "little joker ;" but ten will come 
out here for gold for every one who carries back so much as he 
left home with, and thousands who hasten hither flushed with 
hope and ambition, will lay down to their long rest beneath the 
shadows of the mountains, with only the wind-swept pines to sigh 
their requiem. 

Within the last week, we have tidings of one young gold-seeker, 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 433 

committing- suicide, in a fit of insanity, at the foot of the moun- 
tains; two more were found in a ravine, long dead, and partially- 
devoured by wolves ; while five others, with their horse and dog, 
were overtaken some days since, while on a prospecting tour not 
far from Gregory's, by one of those terrible fires which, kindled by 
the culpable recklessness of some camping party, finds ready 
aliment in the fallen pine leaves, which carpet almost the entire 
mountain region, and are fanned to fury by the fierce gales which 
sweep over the hill-tops, and thus were all burned to death, and 
so found and buried, two or three days since — their homes, their 
names, and all but their fearful fate, unknown to those who ren- 
dered them the last sad offices. 

Ah ! long will their families and friends vainly await and hope 
for the music of footsteps destined to be heard no more on earth ! 

Thus, death seems to be more busy and relentless on these 
broad, breezy plains, these healthful, invigorating mountains, than 
even in the crowded city or the rural districts, thick-sown with 
venerable graves. 

In one of his letters from California, when writing of the 
big trees in Mariposas county, California, which he regarded 
larger than those of Calaveras, he expressed himself thus : 

We went up to the Mariposas trees early next morning. The 
trail crosses a meadow of most luxuriant wild grass, then strikes 
eastward up the hills, and l'ises almost steadily, but in the main 
not steeply, for five miles, when it enters and ends in a slight de- 
pression or valley, nearly on the top of this particular mountain, 
where the big trees have been quietly nestled for I dare not say 
how many thousand years. 

That they were of very substantial size when David danced be- 
fore the Ark, when Solomon laid the foundations of the Temple, 
when Theseus ruled in Athens, when JEneas fled from the burn- 
ing wreck of vanquished Troy, when Sesostris led his victorious 
Egyptians into the heart of Asia, I have no manner of doubt. The 
big trees, of course, do not stand alone, I apprehend that they could 
not stand at present, in view of the very moderate depth at which 
they are anchored to the earth. 

Had they stood on an unsheltered mountain top, or even an ex- 
posed hill-side, they would doubtless have been prostrated, as I 
presume thousands like them were prostrated, by the hurricanes 
of centuries before Christ's advent. But the localities of these, 
though probably two thousand five hundred feet above the South 
28 



434 HORACE GREELEY 

Merced, and some four thousand five hundred above the sea, is 
sheltered and tranquil, though several of these trees have mani- 
festly falleu within the present century. 

Unquestionably, they arc past their prime, though to none more 
than to them is applicable the complimentary characterization of 
"a green old age." 

The great event, of the American conflict, upon the subject and 
overthrow of slavery, could not be otherwise than one of vast rec- 
ord and discussion, for the historian and the author. In many 
respects it was the most gigantic conflict of arms known to man- 
kind, and at once afforded a theme for the greatest talent and the 
most ready writers of the country. It Avas, therefore, very nat- 
ural that Mr. Greeley should be chosen to record its history. 

Having been a long and distinguished actor in American poli- 
tics, and occupying high rank in public affairs, his experience, 
combined with his abilities, eminently fitted him for the historian 
of a struggle so gigantic, and the achievement of a cause so de- 
cisive, in its results, upon the welfare and progress of mankind. 
His fitness for a work so important, was at once comprehended, 
and before the close of the struggle, an enterprising and wealthy 
publishing house of Hartford, Connecticut, Messrs. 0. D. Case 
and Company, requested Mr. Greeley to write a history of the 
causes and conflict of the great Rebellion. They proffered the 
financial aid, and the enterprise was decided upon, and, in 1864, 
the first volume of the work was issued, with title-page and 
dedication, as follows: 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 435 

TUB 

AMERICAN CONFLICT, 

A HISTORY 
OF 
THE GREAT REBELLION 

IN THE 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

1860-64 : 

ITS 

CAUSES, INCIDENTS, AND RESULTS ; 

INTENDED TO EXHIBIT ESPECIALLY ITS MORAL AND POLITI- 
CAL PHASES, 

WITH THE 

DRIFT AND PROGRESS OF AMERICAN OPINION, 

EESPECTING 

HUMAN SLAVERY 

FROM 1776 TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION, 

BY HORACE GREELEY, 

ILLUSTRATED BY PORTRAITS ON STEEL OF GENERALS, STATES- 
MEN, AND OTHER EMINENT MEN ; VIEWS OF PLACES 
OF HISTORIC INTEREST, MAPS, DIAGRAMS 
OF BATTLE-FIELDS, NAVAL AC- 
TIONS, ETC., FROM OFFI- 
CIAL SOURCES. 

VOL. I. 



436 HORACE GREELEY 

TO 

JOHN BRIGHT, 

BRITISH COMMONER AND CHRISTIAN STATESMAN 

THE FRIEND OF MY COUNTRY, 

BECAUSE THE FRIEND OF MANKIND. 

THIS RECORD OF A NATION'S STRUGGLE 

UP 

FROM DARKNESS AND BONDAGE TO LIGHT AND LIBERTY, 

IS REGARDFULLY, GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED 

B"? 

THE AUTHOR. 

That the reader may get a proper understanding and explana- 
tion of Mr. Greeley's views, on the subject of the history of the 
Rebellion, and the spirit that actuated him in making that bloody 
record of the American people, one with another, we give below, his 

PRELIMINARY EGOTISM. 

No one can realize more vividly than I do, that the History 
through whose pages our great-grand-childreu will contemplate 
the momentous struggle whereof this country has recently heen, 
and. still is the arena, will not and cannot now he written ; and that 
its author must give to the patient, careful, critical study of innu- 
merable documents and letters, an amount of time and thought, 
which I could not have commanded, unless I had been able to de- 
vote years, instead of months only, to the preparation of this vol- 
ume. 

I know, at least, what History is, and how it must be made ; I 
know how very far this work must fall short of the lofty ideal. If 
any of my numerous fellow-laborers in this field, is deluded with 
the nation that he has written the history of our gigantic civil war, 
I, certainly, am free from like hallucination. 

"What I have aimed to do, is so to arrange the material fact, and 
so to embody the more essential documents, or parts of documents, 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 437 

illustrating those facts, that the attentive, intelligent reader may 
learn from this work, not only what were the leading incidents of 
our civil war, but its causes, incitements and the inevitable se- 
quence whereby ideas proved the germ of events. I believe the 
thoughtful reader of this volume can hardly fail to see that the 
great struggle in which Ave are engaged, was the unavoidable re- 
sult of antagonisms imbedded in the very nature of our heterogen- 
eous institutions ; — that ours was indeed " an irrepressible con- 
flict," which might have been precipitated or postponed, but could 
by no means, have been prevented; that the successive " compro- 
mises," whereby it was so long put off, were — however intended 
— deplorable mistakes, detrimental to our National character ; 
that we ought— so early, at least, as 1819 — to have definitely and 
conclusively established the right of the constitutional majority to 
shape our National policy according to their settled convictions, 
subject only to the Constitution as legally expounded and applied. 

Had the majority then stood firm, they would have precluded 
the waste of thousands of millions of treasure, and rivers of gener- 
ous blood. 

I presume this work goes further back, and devotes moi-e atten- 
tion to the remoter, more recondite causes of our civil strife, than 
any rival. 

At all events, I have aimed to give a full and fair, though nec- 
essarily condensed view, of all that impelled to our desperate 
struggle. 

I have so often heard or read this demurrer — "You abolitionists 
begin with secession, or the bombardment of Sumpter, slurring over 
all that you had done, through a series of years, to provoke the 
South to hostilities," that I have endeavored to meet that objection 
fairly and fully. If I have failed to dig down to the foundation, 
the defect flows from lack of capacity or deficiency of perception 
in the author ; for he has intently purposed and aimed to begin at 
the beginning. 

I have made frequent and copious citations from letters, speech- 
es, messages, and other documents, many of which have not the 
merit of rarity ; mainly because I could only thus present the views 
of political antagonists in terms which they must recognize and 
reject as authentic. 

In an age of passionate controversy, feAV are capable even of stat- 
ing an opponent's position, in language that he will admit to be ac- 
curate and fair. And there are thousands who cannot to-day real- 
ize that they ever held opinions, and accepted dogmas to which 
they unhesitatingly subscribed less than ten years ago. 



438 HORACE GREELEY 

There is, then, but one safe and just "way to deal with the tenents 
and positions from time to time, held by contending parties — this 
namely : to cite fully and fairly from the " platforms," and other 
formal declarations of sentiment put forth by each ; or (in the ab- 
sence of these,) from the speeches, messages, and other authentic 
utterances of their accepted, recognized chiefs. This I have con- 
stantly and very freely done throughout this volume. 

Regarding the progress of opinion toward absolute, universal 
justice, as the one great end which hallows effort, and recompenses 
sacrifice, I have endeavored to set forth clearly, not only what my 
countrymen at different times, have done, but what the great par- 
ties into which they are, or have been divided, have believed and 
affirmed, with regard, more especially, to human slavery, and its 
rights and privileges in our Union. 

And, however imperfectly my task may have been perfoi-med, I 
believe that no pre-existing work has so fully and consistently ex- 
hibited the influences of slavery, in moulding the opinions of our 
people, as well as in shaping the destinies of our country. 

To the future historian, much will be very easy, that now is dif- 
ficult ; as much will in his day be lucid, which is now obscure ; 
and he may take for granted, and dispatch in a sentence, truths 
that have now to be established by pains-taking research and 
elaborate citation. But it is by the faithful fulfillment of the duties 
incumbent on us, his predecessors, that his labors will be lightened, 
and his averments rendered concise, positive and correct. 

Our work, well done, will render his task easy, while increasing 
the value of its fruits. 

Some ancient historians favor their readers with speeches of gen- 
erals and chiefs to their soldiers, on the eve of battle, and on other 
memorable occasions ; which, however characteristic and fitting, 
are often of questionable authenticity. 

Modern history draws on ampler resources, and knows that its 
materials are seldom apocryphal. What Franklin, Washington, 
Adams, Jefferson, Laurens, the Pinckneys, Marshall, Jackson, Clay, 
Calhoun, Webster, etc., etc., have from time to time pi'opounded 
as to the nature and elements of our Federal fact, the right or 
wrong of secession, the extension or restriction of slavery under 
our National flag, etc., etc., is a record ; and we know, beyond the 
possibility of mistake, its precise terms, as well as its general pur- 
port. 

We stand, as it were, in the immediate presence of the patriot 
sages and heroes, who make us a nation, and listen to their well- 
weighed utterances, as if they moved in life among us to-day. Not 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 439 

to have cited them in exposure and condemnation of the novelties 
that have so fearfully disturbed our peace, would have been to 
slight and ignore some of the noblest lessons ever given by wisdom 
and virtue, for the instruction and guidance of mankind. It has 
been my aim to recognize more fully than has been usual, the legiti- 
mate position and necessary influence of the Newspaper Press of 
our day, in the discussion and decision of the great and grave 
questions, from time to time arising among us. To-day, the his- 
tory of our country is found recorded in the columns of her jour- 
nals, more fully, promptly, vividly, than elsewhere. 

More and more is this becoming the case with other countries 
throughout the civilized world. 

A history which takes no account of what was said by the Press 
in memorable emergencies benefits an earlier age than ours. 

As my plan does not contemplate the invention of any facts, I 
must, of course, in narrating the events of the war, draw largely 
from sources common to all Avriters on this theme, but especially 
from the Rebellion Record of Mr. i rank Moore, wherein the docu- 
ments elucidating our yreat struggle are, in good part, preserved. 

Perhaps the events of no former war were ever so fully and 
promptly embodied in a single work, as are those of our great con- 
test in the Record, which must prove the generous fountain 
whence all future historians of our country may draw at will. 

But I am also considerably indebted to Mr. Orville J. Victor's 
History of the Southern Rebellion, wherein is embodied much 
valuable, important, and interesting material not contained in the 
Record. 

I shall doubtless appear to have made more use of Mr. Edward 
A. Pollard's Southern History of the "War ; which I have often 
cited, and shall continue to cite, for peculiar reasons. Its author 
is so hot-headed a devotee of Slavei'y and the Rebellion, that noth- 
ing which seems to favor that side is too marvelous for his deglu- 
tition ; so that, if he were told that a single Confederate had con- 
strained a Union regiment to lay down their arms and surrender, 
he would swallow it, without scrutiny or doubt. 

His work, therefore, is utterly untrustworthy as a whole ; yet 
in certain aspects, it has great value. He is so headlong and un- 
questioning a believer in the Confederacy, that he never dreams 
of concealing or disavowing the fundamental ideas whereon it is 
based; it is precisely because it stands and strikes for slavery that 
he loves, and glories in the Confederate cause. 

Then his statements of the numbers engaged, or of the losses on 
either side, are valuable in one aspect : You know that he never 



440 HORACE GREELEY 

overstates the strength nor the losses of the Confederates ; while 
he seems, in some instances, to have had. access to official i*eports 
and other documents which have not heen seen this side of the 
Potomac. Hence the use I have made, and shall doubtless con- 
tinue to make, of his work. 

But I trust that it has heen further serviceable to me, in putting 
me on my guard against those monstrous exaggerations of the num- 
bers opposed to them with which weak, incompetent, and worsted 
commanders habitually excuse, or seek to cover up, their failures, 
defeats and losses. 

I have not found, and do not expect to find, room for biographic 
accounts of the generals and other commanders, who figure in our 
great struggle, whether those who have honored and blessed, or 
those who have betrayed and shamed their country. 

To have admitted these would have been to expand my work 
inevitably beyond the prescribed limits. 

By nature little inclined to man-worship, and valuing individu- 
als only as the promoters of measures, the exponents of ideas, I 
have dealt with personal careers only when they clearly exhibited 
some paase of our national character, elucidated the state of con- 
temporary opinion, or palpably and powerfully modified our 
national destinies. 

Thomas Jefferson, Eli Whitney, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Web- 
ster, John C. Calhoun, Benjamin Sundy, Elijah P. Lovejoy, John 
Brown — men differing most widely in intellectual caliber as well 
as in aspirations, instincts, convictions, and purposes — may fairly 
be regarded as, in their several spheres, representative Americans, 
each of whom in some sense contributed to lay the train which we 
have seen fired by. the Secessionists of our day with so magnifi- 
cent a pyrotechnic display, so majestic a resulting contlagration, 
and of these, accordingly, some notion may be acquired from the 
following pages ; while, of our Generals and Commodores, the 
miniature portraits contained in these volumes, and the record of 
their respective achievements, are all that I can give. So many 
battles, sieges, marches, campaigns, etc., remain to be narrated, 
that — ample as this work would seem to be, and capacious as are 
its pages — a naked record of the remaining events of the war, 
especially should it be protracted for a full year more, will test to 
the utmost my power of condensation to conclude the work in 
another volume of the generous amplitude of this. My subject 
naturally divides itself into two parts : 1. How we got into the 
war for the Union ; and 2, how we got out of it. I have respected 
Jiis division in my cast of the present work, and submit this vol- 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 441 

ume as a clear elucidation of the former of these problems, hoping 
to be at least equally satisfactory in my treatment of the latter. 

It is the task of the historian to eliminate from the million facts 
that seemed important in their day and sphere respectively, the 
two or three thousand that have an abiding and general interest, 
presenting these in their due proportions, and with their proper 
relative emphasis. 

Any success in this task must, of course, be comparative and 
approximate ; and no historical work ever was or will be written 
whereof a well-informed and competent critic might not forcibly 
say, "Why was this fact stated, and that omitted? "Why give 
a page to this occurrence, and ignore that, which was of at least 
equal consequence ? Why praise the achievements of A, yet 
pass over that of B, which was equally meritorious and impor- 
tant?" 

But, especially in dealing with events so fresh and recent as 
those of our great convulsion, must the historian expose himself 
to such strictures. 

Time, with its unerring prospective, reduces every incident to 
its true proportions ; so that we are no longer liable to misconcep- 
tions and apprehensions which were once natural, and all but uni- 
versal. 

We know beyond question, that Braddock's defeat and death be- 
fore Fort Du Quesne had not the importance which they seemed 
to wear in the eyes of those who heard of them within the month 
after their occurrence; that Bunker Hill, though tactically a de- 
feat, was practically a triumph to the arms of our Revolutionary 
fathers ; that the return of Bonaparte from Elba exerted but little 
influence over the destinies of Europe, and that little of questiona- 
ble beneficence ; and that " fillibusterism," so called, since its first 
brilliant achievement in wresting Texas from Mexico, and an- 
nexing her to this country, though attempting much, has accom- 
plished very little toward the diffusion either of freedom or 
slavery. 

And so, much that now seems of momentous consequence will 
doubtless have shrunk, a century since, to very moderate dimen- 
sions, or perhaps been forgotton altogether. 

The volume which is to conclude this work cannot, of course, 
appear till some time after the close of the contest; and I hope to 
be able to bestow upon it at least double time that I was at liberty 
to devote to this. I shall labor constantly to guard against Mr. 
Pollard's chief error — that of supposing that all the heroism, de- 
votedness, humanity, chivalry evinced in the contest, were dis- 



442 HORACE GREELEY 

played on one side ; all the cowardice, ferocity, cruelty, rapacity, 
and general depravity on the other. 

I believe it to be the truth, and as such I shall endeavor to show 
that, while this Avar has been signalized by some deeds disgraceful 
to human nature, the general behavior of the combatants on either 
side has been calculated to do honor even to the men who, though 
fearfully misguided, are still our countrymen, and to exalt the 
prestige of the American name. That the issue of this terrible 
contest may be such as God, in His inscrutable wisdom, shall deem 
most directly conducive to the progress of our race in knowledge, 
virtue, liberty and consequent happiness, is not more the fervent 
aspiration, than it is the consoling and steadfast faith, of 

H. G. 

New York, April 10, 1864. 

The second volume of this work was published in 1867, bearing 
the same title-page, but differently dedicated, as follows : 

TO 

THE UNION VOLUNTEERS 

OF 1861-64, 

WHO FELL TO THE RESCUE OF THEIR IMPERILED COUNTRY, 

BECAUSE 

THEY SO LOVED HER, THAT THEY JOYFULLY PROFFERED THEIR 
OWN LIVES TO SAVE HERS ; 

THIS VOLUME 

BEING A RECORD OF THEIR PRIVATIONS, HARDSHIPS AND SUF- 
FERINGS, 

AS ALSO OF THEIE 

VALOR, FIDELITY, CONSTANCY AND TRIUMPH, 

IS BESPECTFULLY mSCKIBED BT 

THE AUTHOR. 

The author introduces the second volume to the reader with the 
following 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 443 

EXPLANATION I 

The history which this volume completes, was not contemplated 
by its author till just after the Draft Riots, by which this empor- 
ium was damaged and disgraced in July, 1863. Up to the occur- 
rence of those riots, I had not been habitually confident of an au- 
spicious immediate issue from our momentous struggle. Never 
doubting that the ultimate result would be such as to vindicate 
emphatically the profoundly wise beneficence of God, it had seemed 
to me more probable — in view of the protracted and culpable com- 
plicity of the North in whatever of guilt or shame, of immorality 
or debasement, was inseparable from the existence and growth of 
American slavery — that a temporary triumph might accrue to the 
Confederates. The real danger of the Republic was not that of 
pei'manent division, but of general saturation by, and subfugation 
to, the despotic ideas and aims of the slave-holding oligarchy. 

Had the Confederacy proved able to wrest from the Federal au- 
thorities an acknowledgment of its independence, and had peace 
been established and ratified on that basis, I believe the Democratic 
party in the loyal States would have forthwith taken ground for 
" restoration " by the succession of their respective States, whether 
jointly or severally, from the Union, and their adhesion to the Con- 
federacy under its Montgomery constitution — making slavery uni- 
versal and perpetual. And, under the moral influence of Southern 
triumph and Northern defeat, in full view of the certainty that 
thus only could reunion be achieved, there can be little doubt that 
the law of political gravitation, of centripetal force, thus appealed 
to, must have ultimately prevailed. Commercial and manufactur- 
ing thrift would have gradually vanquished moral repugnance. It 
might have required some years to heal the wounds of war, and se- 
cure a popular majority in three or four of the Border States, in 
favor of annexation ; but the geographic and economic incitements 
to union are so urgent and palpable, that State after State would 
have concluded to go to the mountain, since it stubbornly refused 
to come to Mahomet ; and, all the States that the Confederacy 
would consent to accept, on conditions of penitence and abjuration, 
would, in time, have knocked humbly at its grim portals for ad- 
mission and fellowship. 

That we have been saved from such a fate, is due to the valor of 
our soldiers, the constancy of our ruling statesmen, the patriotic 
faith and courage of those citizens who, within a period of three 
years, loaned more than two billions to their government, when it 



444 HORACE GREELEY 

seemed to many just tottering on the brink of ruin; yet, more 
than all else, to the favor and blessing of Almighty God. 

They who, whether in Europe or America, from July, 1862, to 
July, 1863, believed the Union death-stricken, had the balance of 
material probabilities on their side ; they erred only in underrating 
the potency of those intellectual, moral and providential forces, 
which, in our age, operate with accelerated power and activity in 
behalf of liberty, intelligence and civilization. So long as it 
seemed probable that our war would result more immediately 
in a Rebel triumph, I had no wish, no heart, to be one of its his- 
torians ; and it was only when — following closely on the heels of 
the great Union successes of July, 1863, at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, 
Port Hudson and Helena — I had seen the Rebellion resisted and 
defeated in this city of New York, (where its ideas and vital aims 
were more generally cherished than even in South Carolina or Lou- 
isiana,) that I confidently hoped for an immediate and palpable, 
rather thau a remote and circuitous triumph of the Union, now 
and evermore blended inseparately with emancipation — with the 
legal and national recognition of every man's right to himself. 
Thenceforward, with momentary intervals of anxiety, depression 
and doubt, it has been to mo a labor of love to devote every avail- 
able hour to the history of the American Conflict. 

This volume is essentially military, as the former was civil ; that 
is, it treats mainly of armies, marches, battles, sieges, and the al- 
ternations of good and ill-fortune that, from January, 1862, to May, 
1865, befell the contending forces respectively of the Union and the 
Confederacy. But he who reads with attention, will discern that 
I have regarded even these under a moral rather than a purely ma- 
terial aspect. Others have doubtless surpassed me in the vivid- 
ness, the graphic power, of their delineations of " the noise of the 
captains, and the shouting." I have sought more especially to por- 
tray the silent influences of these collisions, with the efforts, bur- 
dens, sacrifices, bereavements, they involved, in gradually mould- 
ing and refining public opinion to accept, and ultimately demand, 
the overthrow and extinction of human slavery, as the one vital, 
implacable enemy of our nationality and our peace. 

Hence, while at least three-fourths of this volume narrates mili- 
tary or naval occurrences, I presume a larger space of it than of 
any rival, is devoted to tracing, with all practicable brevity, the 
succession of political events; the sequences of legislation in Con- 
gress with regard to slavery and the war; the varying phases of 
public seutiment ; the rise, growth and decline, of hopes that the 
war would be ended through the accession of its adversaries to 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 445 

power in the Union. I labor nnder a grave mistake if this be not 
judged by our grandchildren (should any of them condescend to 
read it,) the most important and interesting feature of my work. 
I have differed from most annalists, in preferring to follow a cam- 
paign or distinct military movement to its close, before interrupt- 
ing its narration, to give accounts of simultaneous movements or 
campaigns in distant regions, between other armies, led by other 
commanders. In my historical reading, I have often been per- 
plexed and confused by the facility wherewith chroniclers leap 
from the Euphrates to the Danube, and from the Ebro to the Vis- 
tula. In fulJ view of the necessary inter-dependence of events oc- 
curring on widely separated arenas, it has seemed to me prefera- 
ble to follow one movement to its culmination, before dealing 
with another ; deeming the inconveniences and obscurities in- 
volved in this method, less serious than those unavoidable, (by me, 
at least,) on any different plan. Others will judge between my 
method and that which has usually been followed. 

I have bestowed more attention on marches, and on the minor 
incidents of a campaign, than is common ; historians usually de- 
voting their time and force mainly to the portrayal of great, deci- 
sive, (or at least destructive,) battles. But battles are so often 
won or lost by sagaciously planned movements, skillful combina- 
tions, well-conducted marches, and wise dispositions, that I have 
extended to these a prominence which seemed to me more clearly 
justified than usually conceded. 

He was not an incapable general, who observed that he chose to 
win battles with his soldiers' legs rather than their muskets. As 
to dates, I could wish that commanders on all hands were more 
precise than they usually are ; but, wherever dates were accessible, 
I have given them, even though invested with no special or obvi- 
ous consequence. 

Printed mainly as foot notes, they consume little space, and do 
not interrupt the flow of the narrative. The reader who does not 
value, need not heed them ; while the critical student will often 
find them of decided use. Should any one demur to this, I urge 
him to examine thoughtfully the dates of the dispatches received 
and sent by McClellan, between his retreat to Harrison's Bar, and 
Pope's defeat at Groveton ; also, those given in my account of his 
movements from the hour of his arrival at Frederick, to that of 
Lee's retreat from Sharpsburg across the Potomac. 

I trust it will be observed by candid critics that, while I seek not 
to disguise the fact that I honor and esteem some of our command- 
ers as I do not others, I have been blind neither to the errors of the 



446 HORACE GREELEY 

former, nor to the just claims of the latter — that my high estima- 
tion of Grant and Sherman (for instance,) has not led me to conceal 
or soften the lack of reasonable precautions which so nearly in- 
volved their country in deplorable, if not irremediable disaster, at 
Pittsburg Landing. So with Bank's mishap at Sabine Cross-roads, 
and Butler's failure at Fort Fisher. 

On the other hand, I trust my lack of faith in such officers as 
Buell and Fitz John Porter, has not led me to represent them as 
incapable or timorous soldiers. 

"What I believe in regard to these and many more of their school 
is, that they were misplaced — that they halted between their love" 
of country, and their traditional devotion to slavery — that they 
clung to the hope of a compromise which should preservo both 
slavery and the Union, long after all reasonable ground of hope 
had vanished ; figbting the Rebellion with gloved hands, and re- 
laxed sinews, because they mistakingly held that so only was the 
result they sighed for, (deeming it most beneficent,) to be attained. 

If the facts do not justify my convictions, I trust they will be 
found so fairly presented in the following pages, as to furnish the 
proper corrective for my errors. 

Without having given much heed to rival issues, I presume this 
volume will be found to contain accounts (necessarily very brief,) 
of many minor actions and skirmishes, which have been passed un- 
heeded by other historians, on the assumption that, as they did not 
perceptibly affect the great issue, they are unworthy of record. 
But the nature and extent of that influence, is matter of opinion, 
while the qualities displayed in these collisions, wero frequently 
deserving of grateful remembrance. And, beside, an affair of out- 
posts or foraging expeditions, lias often exerted a most signal in- 
fluence over the spirits of two great antagonist armies, and thus 
ever the issues of a battle, and even of a campaign. 

Compressed within the narrowest limits, I have chosen to glance 
at nearly every conflict of armed forces, and to give time to these 
which others have devoted to more elaborate and florid descrip- 
tions of great battles. 

It has been my aim to compress, within the allotted space, the 
greatest number of notable facts and circumstances ; others must 
judge how fully this end has been achieved. Doubtless, many er- 
rors of fact, and some of judgment, are embodied in the following 
pages, for, as yet even the official reports, etc., which every histo- 
rian of this war must desire to study, are but partially accessible. 
I have missed especially the Confederate reports of the later cam- 
paigns ; only a few of which have been made public, though many 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 447 

more, it is probable, will in time be. Some of these may hare 
been destroyed at the hasty evacuation of Richmond ; but many 
must have been preserved, in manuscript if not in print, and will 
yet see the light. 

So far as they were attainable, I have used the reports of Con- 
federate officers, as freely as those of their antagonists, and have 
accorded them nearly, if not quite equal credit. I judge that the 
habit of understanding or concealing their losses, was more preva- 
lent with Confederate than with Union commanders ; in over-esti- 
mating the numbers they resisted, I have not been able to perceive 
any difference. It is simple truth, to say that such ever-estimates 
seem to have been quite common on both sides. 

I shall be personally obliged to any one, no matter on what side 
he served, who will furnish me with trustworthy data for the 
correction of any misstatement embodied in this work. If such 
correction shall dictate a revision of any harsh judgment on friend 
or foe, it will be received and conformed to with profound grati- 
tude. 

My convictions, touching the origin, incitements, and character 
of the war from which we have so happily emerged, are very posi- 
tive, being the fruits of many years' almost exclusive devotion to 
national affairs ; but my judgments as to occurrences and persons, 
are held subject to modification upon further and clearer present- 
ments of fact. 

It is my purpose to revise and correct the following pages, from 
day to day, as new light shall be afforded ; and I ask those who 
may feel aggrieved by any statement I shall herein have given to 
the public, to favor me with the proofs of its inaccuracy. Unwill- 
ing to be drawn into controversy, I am most anxious to render ex- 
act justice to each and all. 

The subject of Reconstruction (or Restoration,) is not within 
the purview of this work, and I have taken pains to avoid it so far 
as possible. The time is not yet for treating it exhaustively, or 
even historically ; its importance, as well as its immaturity, de- 
mand for its treatment thoughtful hesitation, as well as fullness of 
knowledge. Should I be living when the work is at length com- 
plete, I may submit a survey of its nature, progress and results : 
meantime, I will only avow my undoubting faith, that the same 
Divine Benignity which has guided our country through perils, 
more palpable if not more formidable, will pilot her safely, even 
though slowly, through those which now yawn before her, and 
bring her at last into the haven of perfect Peace, genuine Frater- 
nity, and everlasting Union — a Peace grounded on reciprocal es~ 



448 HORACE GREELEY 

teem ; a Fraternity based on sincere, fervent love of our common 
country ; and a Union, cemented by hearty and general recognition 
of the truth, that the only abiding security for the cherished rights 
of any, is to be found in a full and hearty recognition of human 
brotherhood, as well as State sisterhood— in the establishment and 
assured maintenance of All Rights, for All. H. G. 

New York, July 21, 1866. 

As a historian of a great political event, Mr. Greeley acquitted 
himself with ability and honor, by the clear and comprehensive 
manner in which he presented the causes, facts and incidents of a 
struggle so momentous. His labors, on a work so important, not 
only won for him the high appreciation and approval of his country- 
men, but contributed a valuable literary legacy to the future sons 
and daughters of the American Republic, destined to be read and 
studied long after its author shall have passed into everlasting his- 
tory and heaven. 

The " American Conflict" had not been before the public long 
until it was succeeded by the "Recollections of a Busy Life." 
The keen foresight of Mr. Robert Bonner, which enables him to 
render the Ledger the most popular literary paper in the country, 
suggested to his mind that a series of papers from Mr. Greeley, 
setting forth the struggles, incidents and labors of his own life, 
would contribute to the popularity of the Ledger. Therefore, 
Mr. Bonner solicited Mr. Greeley to contribute to his paper, 
setting forth, in his own style and language, a history of his life- 
line, and incidents thereto. 

Mr. Greeley consented to furnish the papers, and their publi- 
cation in the Ledger soon began. When completed, they were 
compiled in 1868, and published, with the following title-page 
and dedication ; and thus Mr. Greeley added another book to 
his own list of works : 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 449 

RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE ; 

INCLUDING 

REMINISCENCES OF AMERICAN POLITICS 

AND POLITICIANS, 

FROM THE OPENING OF THE MISSOURI CONTEST, TO THE DOWN- 
FALL OF SLAVERY ; 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED MISCELLANIES 

" LITERATURE AS A VOCATION," " POETS AND POETRY," " RE- 
FORMS AND REFORMERS," A DEFENSE OF 
PROTECTION, ETC., ETC. 

ALSO, 

A DISCUSSION WITH ROBERT DALE OWEN OF THE LAW OF DIVORCE, 

BY HORACE GREELEY. 



TO 
OUR AMERICAN BOYS, 

WHO, 



BORN IN POVERTY, CRADLED IN OBSCURITY, AND EARLY CALLED 
FROM SCHOOL TO RUGGED LABOR, 



ARE SEEKING 



TO CONVERT OBSTACLE INTO OPPORTUNITY, AND WREST ACHIEVE- 
MENT FROM DIFFICULTY, 



THESE RECOLLECTIONS 

ARE REGARDFULLY INSCRIBED 

BY 

THEIR AUTHOR. 



29 



450 HORACE GKEELEY 

His own explanation for writing the "Recollections," is given 
in the appended 

APOLOGY. 

These recollections owe their existence wholly to an impulse 
external to their author, who, of his own choice, writes topics, 
himself not included. When, years ago, he was introduced to Mr. 
James Parton, and apprised that he had been chosen by that gen- 
tleman as the subject of a biographic volume, he said that every 
person whose career was in some sense public, was a fair subject 
for public comment and criticism, but that he could not furnish 
materials for, nor in any wise make himself a party to the under- 
taking. 

As it had never occurred to him that he should have time and 
inclination to write concerning himself, he had never saved even 
a scrap, with reference to such contingency; and he has chosen 
not to avail himself of Mr. Parton's labors, in order that the fol- 
lowing chapters should, so far as possible, justify their title of 
"Reollections." 

Mr. Robert Bonner is justly entitled to the credit (or otherwise,) 
of having called these " Recollections " into tangible (even though 
fleeting,) existence, i le had previously invited me to write for his 
Ledger, and had paid me liberally for so doing ; but our engage- 
ment and intimacy had long ceased, when, on the occasion of the 
hubub incited by my bailing of Jefferson Davis, he re-opened a long 
suspended correspondence, and once more urged me to write for 
his columns ; suggesting a series of autobiographic reminiscences, 
which I at first declined to furnish. On mature reflection, how- 
ever, I perceived that he had proffered me opportunity to com- 
mend to many thousands of mainly young persons, convictions 
which are a part of my being, and conceptions of public events and 
interests which might never so fairly invoke their attention if I re- 
pelled this opportunity ; and that, therefore, I ought not to reject 
it. Hence, I soon recalled my hasty negative, apprised him that I 
would accept his offer, and immediately commenced writing, as I 
could snatch time from other pressing duties, the " Recollections " 
herewith printed. That they are less personal and more political 
than Mr. Bonner would have wished them, I was early aware ; yet 
he allowed all but two of them to appear, and to have the post of 
honor in successive issues of his excellent and widely circulated 
periodical. I have added somewhat, however, to nearly half of 
them, in revising them for publication in this shape ; but the reader 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 451 

who may note the discrepancy will he so just as to attribute it 
to the proper source. In a single instance only, was I requested 
by Mr. Bonner to change an expression in one of the numbers he 
published ; and therein he was clearly right, as I instantly conceded. 

The papers which 1 have chosen to aid to my " Kecollections," 
in giving them this permanent form, embody my views on certain 
topics which I was not able to present so fully in my contributions 
to the Ledger, yet which I hoped would reward the attention of 
most readers. That in which Protection is explained and com- 
mended, was printed as it was hurriedly written, more than twen- 
ty-five years ago ; I present it now, without the change of a sen- 
tence, as a statement of views contemptuously injected by most 
writers on Political Economy in our day, who never really gave 
them consideration or thought. That they deserve a different and 
more respectful treatment, I profoundly believe ; the public must 
judge between me and their contemners. 

I hope to be spared to write hereafter a fuller and more system- 
atic exposition of Political Economy from the Protectionist stand- 
point ; and I do not expect henceforth to write or prim any other 
work whatever. 

If, then, my friend will accept the essays which conclude this vol- 
ume, as a part of my mental biography, I respectfully proffer this 
book as my account of all of myself that is worth their considera- 
tion ; and I will cherish the hope that some portion, at least, of its 
contents, embody lessons of persistency and patience which will 
not have been set forth in vain. The controversy with Mr. Robert 
Dale Owen, respecting marriage and divorce, which is printed at 
the end of the volume, was wholly unpremeditated on my part, yet 
I had so clearly, though unintentionally, provoked Mr. Owen's first 
letter, that I could not refuse to print it ; and I could not suffer it 
to appear without a reply. My strictures incited a response ; and 
so the discussion ran on, till each had said what seemed to him 
pertinent on a subject of wide and enduring interest. 

Before my last letter was printed, Mr. Owen, presuming that I 
had closed, had prepared those already in print for issue in a 
pamphlet, which accordingly appeared. 

The whole first appear together in this volume ; and I trust it 
will be found that their interest has not exhaled during the eight 
years that have elapsed since they were written. 

H. G. 

New York, Sept. 1, 1868. 

We insert the closing editional chapter of his " Recollections" 



452 HORACE GREELEY 

entitled " My Dead," believing that the reader will with us share 
in the sympathy which its spirit and language bespeak, and fer- 
vently admire the great soul that thus solemnly writes of the dead, 
by a righteous intrusion of their record before the public eye : 

MY DEAD. 

"I do not wear my heart upon my sleeve," and shrink from the 
obtrusion of matters purely personal, upon an indifferent public. 
I have aimed, in this series herewith closed, to narrate mainly such 
facts and incidents, as seemed likely to be of use, either in strength- 
ening the young and portionless for the battle of life, or in com- 
mending to their acceptance, convictions which I deem sound 
and important. My life has been one of arduous, rarely intermit- 
ted, labor, — of efforts to achieve other than personal ends, — of ef- 
forts which have absorbed most of the time, which others freely 
devote to social intercourse and fireside enjoyment. 

Of those I knew and loved in youth, a majority have already 
crossed the dark river, and I will not impose even their names, on 
an unsympathizing world. Among them is my fellow-apprentice, 
and life-long friend, who, after long illness, died in this city, in 
1861 ; my first partner, already named, who was drowned while 
bathing, in 1832 ; and a young poet of promise, who was slowly 
yielding to consumption, when the tidings of our Bull Run disaster 
snapped short his thread of life — as it would have snapped mine, 
had it been half so frail as his. 

The face of many among the departed whom I have known and 
loved, come back to me as I gaze adown the vista of my half-centu- 
ry of active life ; but I have no right to lift the veil which shrouds 
and shields their long repose. I will name but those who are a 
part of myself, and whose loss to earth has profoundly affected my 
subsequent career. 

Since I began to write these reminiscences, my mother's last sur- 
viving brother, John Woodburn, has deceased, aged seventy-two, 
leaving the old Woodburn homestead, I understand, to some among 
his children ; so has my father's brother, Isaac, aged eighty, leav- 
ing, so far as I know, but one of the nine brothers (John,) still 
living. My father, himself died on the 18th of December last, aged 
eighty-six. He had, for twelve years or more, been a mere wreck, 
first in body only ; but his infirmities ultimately affected his mind ; 
so that, when I last visited him, a year before his death, he did not 
recognize me till after he had sat by my side for a full half-hour ; 
and he had before asked my oldest sister, " Did you ever know 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 453 

Henry Greeley ?" — alluding- to one of her sons, then several years 
dead. He had fitful flashes of mental recovery ; but he had been 
so long a helpless victim of hopeless bodily and mental decay, that 
I did not grieve Avdien 1 learned that his spirit had at length shaken 
off' the encumbrance of its mortal coil, which had ceased to be an 
instrument, and remained purely an obstruction. Of his protracted 
life, forty-two years had been spent in or on the verge of New 
England, and forty-four in his deliberately chosen, steadily retained 
Pennsylvaniaii home. 

My son, Arthur Young (" Pickie,") born in March, 1844, was 
the third of seven children, whereof a son and daughter, severally 
born in 1838 and in 1812, scarcely opened their eyes to a world which 
they entered, but to leave. Physically, they were remarkable for 
their striking resemblance in hair and features, to their father and 
mother respectively. 

Arthur had points of similarity to each of us, but with decided 
superiority, as a whole, to either. I looked in vain through Italian 
galleries, two years after he was taken from us, for any full paral- 
lel to his dazzling beauty — a beauty not physical merely, but visi- 
bly radiating from the soul. His hair was of the finest and richest 
gold ; " the sunshine of picture " never glorified its equal ; 
and the delicacy of his complexion at once fixed the attention of 
observers, like the late N. P. Willis, who had traversed both hem- 
ispheres without having his gaze arrested by any child who could 
bear a comparison with this one. Yet he was not one of those para- 
gons sometimes met with, whose idlest chatter would edify a Sun- 
day school — who never do or say ought that propriety would not 
sanction, and piety delight in — but thoroughly human, and endued 
with a love of play and mischief, which kept him busy and happy 
the livelong day, while rendering him the delight and admiration 
of all around him. 

The arch delicacy wherewith he inquiringly suggested, when 
once told a story that overtaxed his credulity, " I 'pose that anti 
a lie ?" was characteristic of his nature. 

Once, when about three years old, having chanced to espy my 
watch lying on a sofa, as I was dressing one Sunday morning, with 
no third person present, he made a sudden spring of several feet, 
caught the watch by the chain, whirled it around his head, and 
sent it whizzing against the chimney, shattering its face into frag- 
ments. " Pickie!" I inquired, rather sadly than angrily, "how 
could you do me such injury ?" 

" 'Cause I was nervous," he regretfully replied. 



454 IIORACE GREELEY 

There were ladies then making part of our household, whose 
nerves were a source of general as well as personal discomfort ; 
and this was his attestation of the fact. There were wiser and 
deeper sayings treasured as they fell from his lips ; but I will not 
repeat them. 

Several yet live who remember the graceful gayety wherewith 
he charmed admiring circles assembled at our house, and at two 
or three larger gatherings of friends of Social Reform in this city, 
and at the N. A. Phalanx in New Jersey ; and I think some grave 
seignior, who was accustomed to help us enjoy our Saturday 
afternoons in our rural suburban residence at Turtle Bay, were 
drawn thither as much by their admiration of the son as by their 
regard for his parents. 

Meantime, another daughter was given to us, and, after six 
months, withdrawn ; and still another born, who yet survives ; 
and he had run far into his sixth year without one serious illness. 
His mother had devoted herself to him from his birth, even beyond 
her intense consecration to the care of her other children ; had 
never allowed him to partake of animal food, and to know that an 
animal was ever killed to be eaten ; had watched and tended him 
with absorbing love, till the perils of infancy seemed fairly van- 
quished ; and we had season to hope that the light of our eyes 
would be spared to gladden our remaining years. It was other- 
wise decreed. 

In the Summer of 1849, the Asiatic cholera suddenly reappeared 
in our city, and the frightened authorities ordered all swine, etc., 
driven out of town — that is, above Fortieth street — whereas, our 
home was about Forty-eighth street, though no streets had yet 
been cut through that quarter. 

At once, and before we realized our danger, the atmosphere was 
polluted by the exhalations of the swinish multitude thrust upon 
us from the densely peopled hives south of us, and the cholera 
claimed its victims by scores before we were generally aware of 
its presence. 

Our darling was among the first ; attacked at 1 a. m. of the 12th 
of July, when no medical attendance was at hand ; and our own 
prompt, unremitted efforts, re-enforced at length by the best medi- 
cal skill within reach, availed nothing to stay the fury of the epi- 
demic, to which he succumed about 5 p. M. of that day — one of the 
hottest, as well as quite the longest, I have ever known. 

He was entirely sane and conscious till near the last; insisting 
that he felt little or no pain, and was well, save that we kept him 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 455 

sweltering under clothing that he wanted to throw off, as he did 
whenever he was permitted. 

"When at length the struggle ended with his last breath, and even 
his mother was convinced that his eyes would never again open on 
the scenes of this world. I knew that the summer of my life was 
over, that the chill breath of its autumn was at hand, and that my 
future course must be along the downhill of life. 

Yet another son (Rappall Uhland) was born to us two years 
afterwards ; who, though more like his father and less like a poet 
than author, was quite as deserving of parental love, though not 
so eminently fitted to evoke and command general admiration. 

He was with me in France and Switzerland in the Summer of 
1855; spending, with his mother and sister, the previous Winter 
in London, and that subsequent in Dresden ; returning with them 
in May, '56, to fall a victim to the croup the ensuing February. 

I was absent on a lecturing tour when apprised of his dangerous 
illness, and hastened home to find that he had died an hour before 
my arrival, though he had hoped and striven to await my return. 
He had fulfilled his sixth year and twelve days over, when our 
home was again made desolate by his death. 

Another daughter was born to us four weeks later, who sur- 
vives ; so that we have reason to be grateful for two children left 
to sooth our decline, as well as for five who, having preceded us 
on the long journey, await us in the Land of Souls. 

My life has been busy and anxious, but not joyless. "Whether it 
whall be prolonged few or more years, I am grateful that it has en- 
dured so long, and that it has abounded in opportunities for good 
not wholly unimproved, and in experiences of the nobler as weh 
as the baser impulses of human nature. 

I have been spared to see the end of giant wrongs, which I once 
deemed invincible in this century, and to note the silent upspring- 
ing and growth of principles and influences which I hail as des- 
tined to root out some of the most flagrant and pervading evils 
that yet remain. 

I realize that each generation is destined to confront new and 
peculiar perils — to wrestle with temptations and seductions un- 
known to its predecessors ; yet I trust that progress is a general 
law of our being, and that the ills and woes of the future shall be 
less crushing than those of the bloody and hateful past. 

So looking calmly, yet humbly, for that close of my mortal ca- 
reer which cannot be far distant, I reverently thank God for the 
blessings vouchsafed me in the past ; and with an awe that is not 
fear and a consciousness of demerit which does not exclude hope, 



456 HORACE GREELEY 

await the opening before my steps of the gates of the Eternal 
World. 

Deeply interested, and actively engaged, in the welfare of a 
nation, constantly agitated by great political and social questions, 
it was befitting that Mr. Greeley should write and publish a 
work on Political Economy. 

Perhaps no man, not even Henry Clay, has worked so long 
and with such self-sacrificing devotion, for the thorough develop- 
ment of the industrial, financial and commercial interests of the 
nation as Mr. Greeley. And while Mr. Clay closed his earthly 
career, after having fully and truly vindicated the noblest senti- 
ment of his life, "I would rather be Henry Clay and be right, 
than to be wrong and be President." Mr. Greeley has, per- 
haps, with even more certainty, performed the labors of a long 
Jife, with greater self-sacrificing devotion to the public good, 
than Mr. Clay. 

It was, therefore, very natural that such a man should seek by 
a well digested fund of thought and systematic labor to point out 
fundamental principles of economy, which, with their proper ad- 
justment and use, are essential to the welfare of the republic and 
the prosperity of the people. 

Such was Mr. Greeley's purpose, and such is the work he 
achieved in the production of his volume on Political Economy. 
Not an elaborate work, it is true, obscuring ideas and principles, 
by pretended discussions on simple propositions, but a well de- 
fined and logical statement of facts and arguments, in such a 
manner as to be easily understood by all. His work first ap- 
peared as a series of articles or chapters in the New York Tri- 
bune, during the year 1869, and appeared in book form in 
1870, with the following title and dedication : 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 457 



ESSAYS 

DESIGNED TO ELUCIDATE THE SCIENCE OP 

POLITICAL ECONOMY, 

WHILE SERVING TO EXPLAIN AND DEFEND THE POLICY OP 

PROTECTION TO HOME INDUSTRY, 
AS A SYSTEM OF 

NATIONAL CO-OPERATION FOR THE 
ELEVATION OF LABOR, 
BY HORACE GREELEY, 

TO THE MEMORY 

OP 

HENRY CLAY, 

THE GENIAL, GALLANT, HIGH-SOULED PATRIOT, ORATOR AND 
STATESMAN : THE NOBLEST EMBODIMENT OF AMERI- 
CAN GENIUS, CHARACTER, AND ASPIRATIONS J 
THE MAN WHO MOST EFFECTIVELY COM- 
MENDED THE POLICY OF PROTEC- 
TION TO THE UNDERSTAND- 
INGS AND HEARTS OF 
THE MASSES OF 
HIS COUNTRY- 
MEN. 

THIS WORK 

OF ONE AMONG THE MANY WHO STILL LOVE, HONOR AND 
ADMIRE HIM, 

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



458 HORACE GREELEY 

The work contains the following preface : 

"No doubt, you are the people, and wisdom will die with you," 
said patient, yet still, human Job, when his friends had rather 
overdone the business of reproving, exhorting, correcting, and gen- 
erally overhauling him. 

I am often reminded of the old patriarch's later and less materi- 
al tribulations, while scanning the lucubrations of those who mod- 
estly claim for their own school, a monopoly of all the wisdom 
wherewith the science of Political Economy has yet been irradi- 
ated, and dismiss the arguments of their antagonists as the soph- 
isms of rapacity and selfishness, or of a mole-eyed ignorance aud 
narrowness unworthy of grave confutation. There are minds 
whereon such majestic assumptions of superior wisdom may im- 
pose ; but I make no appeal to them. 

I write for the great mass of intelligent, observant, reflecting 
farmers and mechanics ; and, if I succeed in making my positions 
clearly understood, I do not fear that they will be condemned or 
rejected. Had I been able to snatch more time from the incessant 
labors and cares of a most exacting vocation, I should have pre- 
sented a more complete and unexceptionable work. 

I ought to have had at least one full year for the preparation of 
this volume ; whereas, I have given it but a portion of my time for 
six months, I could have fortified my positions far more strongly 
with citations from those whose arguments are weighty, and es- 
pecially with those of eminent free-traders, had I enjoyed a fuller 
opportunity. But there is an important sense wherein my whole 
past life has been a preparation for this undertaking; for the ex- 
perience and observation of nearly half a century, so far as they 
bear upon the sources and currents of industrial prosperity or ad- 
versity, have been freely drawn upon in the composition of the fol- 
lowing chapters, which embody what I have seen and felt far more 
fully than they do, what I have read and studied. At all events, 
I cannot hope ever to find time to study more profoundly and 
write more elaborately; so those who care to scan my views of the 
important topic here treated, will seek them in the volume here- 
with presented. At all events, those who read, will say that here 
is no artifice, no concealment, no reserve. If Protection be indeed 
the narrow, bigoted, short-sighted, one-sided, self-condemned, en- 
vious, hateful policy, its enemies proclaim it, this work cannot fail 
to reveal the fact, so that it will no longer be believed on the mere 
dictum of Baptist, Say, Bastiat, McCulloch and Mill. 

These essays will not disarm hostility any more than they dep- 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 459 

recate criticism. If it be true that Protection is based on envy or 
hatred of others' prosperity, and seeks to pull them down to a com- 
mon level of obstruction, stagnation and virtual ruin — if Protec- 
tion be a device to sell inferior goods at extortionate prices — to 
enable manufacturers to enrich themselves at the expense of invol- 
untary customers — that fact may be demonstrated from the follow- 
ing pages. 

I know that the hurry of preparation leaves my positions at many 
points exposed to cavil ; yet my confidence that they are based on 
absolute truth, is so profound, that I heartily commend them to 
thoughtful scrutiny. Writing for common people, I have aimed, 
above all things; to be lucid and simple. My illustrations are 
drawn from our national History, mainly from that part of it where- 
of there arc many living witnesses ; and I have preferred those to 
whose truthfulness I could personally bear testimony. If these 
shall often seem to be fastidious, homely and commonplace, I do 
not believe that they will, on that account, be less acceptable to, or 
less effective with, the larger number of my readers. Doubtless, 
some will disrelish my frequent citations from the records of our 
past struggles to establish on the one hand, to undermine and sub- 
vert on the other, the policy of Protection ; but they are not made 
without a purpose. For the questions we are about to consider, 
the issues we are soon to try, are in essence, the same that were 
passed upon by our fathers; and my positions are substantially 
those held by Henry Clay, Eollin C. Mallory, Walter Forward, and 
their compeers, in opposition to those of John Randolph, John C. 
Calhoun, George McDuffle, and Churchill C. Cambreleng. There 
are no stronger arguments for Free Trade to-day, than those so ably 
urged by Daniel Webster in his speech against the tariff of 1824 — 
a very great speech indeed, and one which no man now living can 
surpass — but it did not defeat the passage of the bill, nor prevent 
Mr. Webster becoming in after years a leading champion of that 
protective policy which he therein assailed so forcible. We who, 
as boys or as men, were humble participants in the contest for Pro- 
tection in those days, are not likely to be disengaged by a repro- 
duction of the arguments which the American people then debat- 
ed, considered and condemned as inapt or unsound. 

We are about to enter, as a people, upon a very general and earn- 
est discussion of economic questions, and I rejoice that such is the 
case. I welcome the conflict, for I feel entirely assured as to the 



460 HORACE GREELEY 

ultimate issue. Bull Runs and Chickamaugas may intervene, but 
I look beyond them to our Atlanta and our Appomattox. 

H. G. 
New York, Dec. 1, 1869. 

From this book we quote the first chapter, to show the basis 
of the work, and in doing so, feel satisfied that as an essay upon 
labor it as a very able paper, and deserves a perusal by all : 

LABOR-PRODUCTION. 

First of man's material interests, most pervading, most essential, 
is Labor, or the employment of human faculties, and sinews to 
create, educe, or shape articles required by his needs or tastes. 

Though Providence is benignant, and Nature bounteous, so that 
it was possible, in the infancy of the race, that the few simple 
wants of a handful of savages, might be fitfully, grudgingly satis- 
fied from the spontaneous products of the earth ; and though a thin 
population of savages is still enabled to subsist, on a few fertile 
tropical islands, without regular, systematic industry, — their num- 
ber being kept below the point of mutual starvation, by incessant 
wars, by cannibalism, by infanticide, and by their unbounded li- 
centiousness, — the rule is all but inexorable, that human existence, 
even, is dependent on human labor. 

To the race generally, to smaller communities, and to individu- 
als, God proffers the stern alternative, •' work, or perish !" Idlers 
and profligates are constantly dying out, leaving the earth peopled 
mainly by the offspring of the relatively industrious and frugal. 

Philanthropy may drop a tear by their unmarked graves ; but 
the idle, thriftless, improvident tribes and classes, will nevertheless 
disappear, leaving the earth to those, who, by planting, as well as 
by clearing away forests, and by tilling, irrigating, fertilizing and 
beautifying the earth, prove themselves children worthy of her 
bounty and her blessing. Even if all things were made common, 
and the idle welcomed to a perpetual feast upon the products of 
the toil of the diligent, still the former would rapidly pass away, 
leaving few descendants, and the children of the latter would ulti- 
mately inherit the earth. 

Labor begins by producing and storing the food and fabrics re- 
quired to shield men from the assaults of hunger and thirst, from 
storm and frost, from bleak winds, and the austerity of seasons and 
climates ; but it does not end here. Man's wants expand and mul- 
tiply with his means of satisfying them. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 461 

He who would once have deemed himself fortunate, if provided 
with the means of satisfying his most urgent physical needs, and 
" passing rich on forty pounds a year," learns gradually, as his 
means increase, to number a stately mansion, with spacious sub- 
structures and grounds, a costly equipage, sumptuous furniture, 
rare pictures and statuary, plate and precious stones, among his 
positive needs. " The heart of man, is never satisfied " with its 
worldly goods ; and this is wisely ordered, that none should cease 
to struggle and aspire. 

The possessor of vast wealth seems more eager to increase it, 
than his needy neighbor to escape from the squalid prison-house of 
object want. 

The man of millions, just tottering on the brink of the grave, 
still schemes and contrives to double those millions, even when he 
knows that his hoard must soon pass to distant relatives, to whose 
welfare he is utterly indifferent. 

The mania for heaping up riches, though it has a very material, 
tangible basis, outlives all rational motive, and defies all sensible 
limitations. Many a thoroughly selfish person has risked and lost 
his life in eager pursuit of gain, which he did not need, and could 
not hope to enjoy. 

Yet, when poets, philanthropists and divines, have said their 
worst of it, the love of personal acquisition remains the main- 
spring of most of the material good thus far achieved on this rug- 
ged, prosaic planet. Columbus, wearily bearing from court to 
court his earnest petition to be enabled to discover a new world, 
insisted on his claim to be made hereditary Lord High Admirer of 
that world, and to a tithe of all the profits that should flow from 
its acquisition. 

The great are rarely so great, or the good so good that they 
choose to labor, and dare entirely for the benefit of others ; while, 
with the multitude, personal advantage is the sole incitement to 
continuous exertion. Man's natural love of ease and enjoyment is 
only overborne, in the general case, by his consciousness, that 
through effort and self-denial lies the way to comfort and ease for 
his downhill of life, and a more fortunate career for his children. 

Take aAvay the inducements to industry and thrift, afforded by 
the law which secures to each the ownership and enjoyment of his 
rightful gains, and, through universal poverty and ignorance, even 
Christendom would rapidly relapse into utter barbarism. 

But, though iudustry is mainly selfish in its impulses, it is bene- 
ficent, and even moral, in its habitual influences and results. Closely 
scan any community and you will trace its reprobates and crimi- 



462 HORACE GREELEY 

nals back to homes and haunts of youthful idleness. Of the hundred 
youths this day living in a rural village or school district, or on a 
city block, if it be fouud qn inquiry that sixty are diligent, habit- 
ual workers, while the residue are growing up in idleness, broken 
only by brief and fitful spasms of industry, you may safely con- 
clude that the sixty will become moral, useful, examplary men and 
women, while the forty will make their way, through lives of vice 
and ignominy, to criminals', drunkards', or paupers' graves. The 
world is full of people who wander from place to place, whining 
for " Something to do," and begging or stealing their subsistence 
for want of work, whose fundamental misfortune is, that they 
know how to do nothing, having been brought up to just that. 
They are leeches on the body politic, and must usually be support- 
ed by it, in prison or poor-house, and finally buried at its cost, 
mainly because their ignorant or vicious parents culpably failed to 
teach them, or have them taught to work. 

Now they will tell you, when in desperate need, that they are 
" toilling to do anything;" but what avails that, since they know 
how to do nothing that is useful, or that any one wants to pay 
them for doing ? 

There have been communities, and even races, that proclaimed 
it a religious and moral duty of parents to have each child taught 
some useful calling, whereby an honest living would be well-nigh 
assured. That child might be the heir of vast wealth, or even of 
a kingdom ; but that did not excuse hiin from learning how to 
earn his livelihood like a peasant. 

The Saracens and Moors, were born the faith of Mohammed on 
their victorious lances, to the very heart alike of Europe, Asia and 
Africa, so trained their sons to practice and honor industry ; un- 
like the Turks and Arabs, who, since the decay of the empires of 
Saladin and Huroun al Raschid, have inherited the possessions, 
but not the genius, of the earlier champions and disseminators of 
their faith. 

Greek and Roman civilization had previously rotted away, under 
the baneful influences of that contempt for, and avoidance of labor 
which slavery never fails to engender. Not till the diversification 
of industry, through the silent growth and diffusion of manufac- 
tures, had undermined and destroyed serfdom in Europe, was it 
possible to emancipate that continent from mediaeval ignorance 
and barbarism. 

Not while the world still waits for a more systematic, thorough 
enforcement of the principle that every child should in youth be 
trained to sJcill and efficiency, in some department of useful, pro- 



AS A THAN OF LETTERS. 463 

ductive industry, can we hope to banish able-bodied pauperism, 
with its attendant train of hideous vices and sufferings, from the 
civilized world. 

So long as children shall be allowed to grow up in idleness, must 
our country, with most other countries, be overrun with beggars, 
thieves and miserable wrecks of manhood, as well as of woman- 
hood. 

Every child should be trained to dexterity in some useful branch 
of productive industry, not in order that he shall certainly follow 
that pursuit, but that he may at all events be able to do so in case 
he shall fail in the more intellectual or artificial calling which he 
may prefer to it. Let him seek to be a doctor, lawyer, preacher, 
poet, if he will ;"but let him not stake his all on success in that pur- 
suit, but have a second line to fall back upon if driven from his 
first. Let him be so reared and trained that he may enter, if he 
will, upon some intellectual calling, in the sustaining conscious- 
ness that he need not debase himself, nor do violence to his convic- 
tions, in order to achieve success therein, since he can live and 
thrive in another (if you choose, humbler,) vocation, if driven 
from that of his choice. This buttress to integrity, this assurance 
of self-respect, is to be found in a universal training to efficiency 
in productive labor. The world is full of misdirection and waste ; 
but all the calamities and losses endured by mankind through frost, 
drouth, blight, hail, fires, earthquakes, inundations, are as nothing 
to those habitually suffered by them through human idleness and 
inefficiency, mainly caused (or excused,) by lack of industrial 
training. It is quite within the truth to estimate that one-tenth of 
our people, in the average, are habitually idle, because (as they say,) 
they can find no employment. They look for work where it can- 
not be found. They seem to be, or they are, unable to do such as 
abundantly confronts and solicits them. 

Suppose these to average but one million able-bodied persons, 
and that their work is worth but one dollar each per day ; our loss 
by involuntary idleness cannot be less than $300,000,000 per an- 
num. I judge that it is actually $500,000,000. Many who stand 
waiting to be hired, could earn from two to five dollars per daj r , 
had they been properly trained to work. " There is plenty of 
room higher up," said Daniel Webster, in response to an inquiry 
as to the prospects of a young man just entering upon the practice 
of law ; and there is never a dearth of employment for men or wo- 
men of signal capacity or skill. In this city, ten thousand women 
are always doing needle-work for less than fifty cents per day, find- 
ing themselves ; yet twice their number of capable, skillful seam- 



464 HORACE GREELEY 

stresses could find steady employment and good living in wealthy 
families, at not less than one dollar per day, over and ahove board 
and lodging. He who is a good blacksmith, a fair millwright, a 
tolerable wagon-maker, and can chop timber, make fence, and man- 
age a small farm if required, is always sure of work and fair rec- 
ompense ; while he or she who can keep books or teach music fair- 
ly, but knows how to do nothing else, is in constant danger of fall- 
ing into involuntary idleness, and consequent beggary. 

It is a broad, general truth, that no boy was ever yet inured to 
daily, systematic, productive labor in field or shop, throughout the 
latter half of his minority, who did not prove a useful man, and 
was not able to find work whenever he wished it. Yet to the am- 
ple and constant employment of a whole community, one pre-req- 
uisite is indispensable : that a variety of pursuits shall have been 
created or naturalized therein. 

A people who have but a single source of profit, are uniformly 
poor, not because that vocation is necessarily ill-chosen, but be- 
cause no single calling can employ and reward the varied capaci- 
ties of male and female, young and old, robust and feeble. Thus 
a lumbering or fishing region, with us, is apt to have a large pro- 
portion of needy inhabitants ; and the same is true of a region ex- 
clusively devoted to cotton growing or gold-mining. A diversity 
of pursuits is indispensable to general activity and enduring pros- 
perity. 

Sixty or seventy years ago, what was then the district, and is 
now the State of Maine, was a proverb in New England for the 
poverty of its people, mainly because they were so largely engaged 
in timber-cutting. The great grain-growing, wheat exporting dis- 
tricts of the Russian empire, have a poor and rude people, for a 
like reason. Thus the industry of Massachusetts is immensely 
more productive per head, than that of North Carolina, or even 
that of Indiana, as it will cease to be whenever manufactures shall 
have been diffused over our whole country, as they must and will 
be. In Massachusetts, half the women and nearly half the chil- 
dren, aid by their daily labor to the aggregate of realized wealth; 
in North Carolina and in Indiana, little wealth is produced save 
by the labor of men, including boys of fifteen or upward. When 
this disparity shall have ceased, its consequence will also disap- 
pear. And, though man is first impelled to labor by the spur of 
material want, the movement outlasts the impulse in which it- orig- 
inated. The miser toils, and schemes, and saves, with an eye sin- 
gle to his own profit or aggrandizement; but commodious public 
halls, grand hotels, breezy parks, vast libraries, noble colleges, are 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 465 

often endowed in his will, or founded on his wealth. "Whatever 
the past has bequeathed for our instruction, civilization, refine- 
ment, or comfort, was created for us by the saving, thrifty, provi- 
dent minority of vanished generations, many of whom were des- 
pised and reviled through life as absorbed in selfishness, and re- 
gardless of other than personal ends. How many of those who 
flippantly disparaged and contemned him while he lived, have ren- 
dered to mankind such signal, abiding service, as Stephen Girard, 
or John Jacob Astor ? 

He who is emphatically a worker, has rarely time or taste for 
crime or vice. Nature is so profoundly imbued with integ- 
rity, so implacably hostile to unreality and shame, so inflexible 
in her resolve to give so much for so much, and to yield no more 
to whatever incitement or weedling, that the worker, as worker, 
is well-nigh constrained to uprightness. The farmer or gardener 
may be tempted to cheat as a trafficker — to sell honey that is half 
molasses, or milk that he has made sky-blue with water — yet even 
he knows better than to hope or seek to defraud nature of so much 
as a farthing; for he feels that she will not allow it. Every thou- 
sand bushels of grain, wherever produced, cost just so much exer- 
tion of mind and muscle, and will be commanded by no less. Stu- 
pidity, seeking to dispense with the brain-work, may make them 
far too costly in muscular effort ; but nature fixes her price for 
them, and will accept no dime short of it. "Work, wherever done, 
bears constant, emphatic testimony to the value, the necessity, of 
integrity and truth. 

Carljie states past and present this more broadly, hence more 
impressively, thus : It has been written, an endless significance 
lies in work; a man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles 
are cleared away ; fair seed-fields rise instead, and stately cities ; 
and withal the man himself first ceases to be jungle, and foul, un- 
wholesome desert, thereby. Consider how, even in the meanest 
sort of labor, the whole soul of man is composed into a kind of real 
harmony, the instant he sets himself to work. Doubt, desire, sor- 
row, remorse, indignation, despair itself, all these, like hell dogs, 
beleaguering the soul of the poor day worker, as of every man ; 
but he bends with free valor against his task, and all these are 
stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. 

The man is now a man. The blessed glow of labor in him — is it 
not as purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour 
smoke itself there is made bright, blessed flame? 

Show me a people energetically busy, heaving, struggling, all 
shoulders at the wheel, their hearts pulsing, every muscle swel- 

30 



466 HORACE GREELEY 

ling with man's energy and will ; I show you a people of whom 
great good is already predicahle — to whom all manner of good is 
yet certain, if their energy endure. By every working they will 
learn ; they have, Antaeus-like, their feet on Mother Fact ; how 
can they but learn ? 

Our own great Channing had, some years earlier, set forth the 
same general truth — that of the beneficence of labor as a ground- 
work of human education and discipline — in terms somewhat less 
vigorous, but no less explicit and positive, than those of the Brit- 
ish essayist. He says : 

1. Lectures on the elevation of the laboring cla-sses, by the Rev. 
"William Channing, D. D. 

I do not expect a series of improvements by which the laborer 
is to be released from his daily work. Still more, I have no de- 
sire to dismiss him from his workshop and farm — to take the spado 
and axe from his hand, and to make his life a long holiday. 

I have faith in labor ; and I see the goodness of God in placing 
us in a world where labor alone can keep us alive. I would not 
change, if I could, our own subjection to physical laws, our expos- 
ure to hunger and cold, and the necessity of constant conflicts 
with the material world. I would not, if I could, so temper the 
elements that they should infuse into us only grateful sensation — 
that they should make vegetation so exuberate as to anticipate 
every want, and the minerals so ductile as to offer no resistance to 
our strength and skill. 

Such a world would make a contemptable race. 

Man owes his growth, his energy, chiefly to the striving of the 
will — that conflict with difficulty which we call effort. 

Easy, pleasant work, does not make robust minds ; does not 
give men a consciousness of their powers ; does not train them to 
endurance, to perseverance, to steady force of will— that force 
without which all other acquisitions avail nothing. Manual labor 
is a school in which men are placed to get energy of purpose and 
character — a vastly more important endowment than all the learn- 
ing of all other schools. 

They are placed, indeed, under hard masters — physical suffer- 
ings and wants, the power of fearful elements, and the vicissitudes 
of all human things ; but these stern teachers' do a work which no 
compassionate, indulgent friend could do for us ; and true wisdom 
will bless providence for their sharp ministry. I have great faith 
in hard labor. 

The material world does much for the mind by its beauty and 
order ; but it does much more for our minds by the pain it inflicts 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 467 

by its obstinate resistance, which nothing but patient toil can 
overcome — by its vast forces, which nothing but unremitting skill 
and effort can turn to our use — by its perils, which demand con- 
tinual vigilance, and by its tendency to decay. I believe that diffi- 
culties are more important to the human mind than what we call 
assistances. Work we all must, if we mean to bring out and per- 
fect our nature. Even if we do not work with the hands, we must 
undergo equivalent toil in some other direction. 

No business or study which does not present obstacles, tasking 
to the full, the intellect and the will, is worthy of man. In science, 
he who does not grapple with hard questions, who does not con- 
centrate his whole intellect on vigorous attention, who does not 
aim to penetrate what at first repels him, will never attain to 
mental force. 

Ross Browne, summoning up his observations made during a 
recent tour of the Holy Land, remarks that he saw in all that 
country but one man doing auy thing ; he was falling off the roof 
of a house. 

Need it be explained that Palestine is under the sway of a race 
and rule that reject the idea of Protection to Home Industry, hold- 
ing it condemned by the precepts of that Koran which is their 
Bible ? 

Labor is amazingly cheap there — cheap as in the day when each 
of the laborers in the vineyard received a penny for his day's 
wages, whether he had worked twelve hours or but one — yet 
barely a few of the very rudest manufacturers are still prosecuted, 
and these are palpable, feeble, and declining, with the great body 
of the people impoverished, wretched, despairing. 

Well may they be so under a government which (as a recent 
writer from Constantinople reports) charges an encise duty of 
twelve per cent, on ship-timber, cut from Turkish forests, and an 
import of but eight per cent, on like timber imported from a for- 
eign land. 

No plundering the masses here for the profit of " monopolists " 
and " cotton-lards ; " yet the wild Bedouin of the desei't levies at 
will on the wretched tiller of the soil ; the local tax-collector- 
siezes most of what remains ; and the hapless cultivator is driven 
in the Spring to the usurer, of whom he borrows, at twenty-five 
to fifty per cent., the means of re-sodding his unfertilized fields, 
and thus beginning anew his dreary, hopeless round of famished 
toil, and vexatious care. 

The Hon. Robert Dale Owen, who spent several years at Na- 
ples, as minister of the United States, declares the lazzaroni of 



468 HORACE GREELEY 

that great city unjustly stigmatized as inveterate, willful idlers . he 
having found them always accepting with alacrity any job that 
was offered them, and that they knew how to do. They were 
habitually idle, simply because they could get no work. 

Let us suppose that the new kingdom of Italy were ruled by 
some great genius like Czar Peter, or Napoleon I. ; can yon believe 
that he would not find or make some way of setting tbese idle 
hundreds of thousands at work ? that he would be withheld from 
attempting it by some college pedant, or blear-eyed book-worm, 
who should magisterially admonish him that government have 
properly nothing to do with industry or commerce — that the ex- 
tent of their legitimate function, is to keep men from breaking each 
other's head, or picking each other's pockets — that they transcend 
their sphere whenever they meddle with production, and seek to 
make two blades of grass flourish, where but one has hitherto been 
grown? 

"Who does not see that to set those thousands at work — to make 
them busy, useful, thrifty — to proffer them ample, remunerative, 
diversified employment — is to elevate them morally as well as phy- 
sically, to increase the wealth and strength of the kingdom or State ; 
nay, more — to elevate the standard of human nature, and increase 
the sum of human well-being ? 

But the Turks are slave-holders ; and slavery does not concern 
itself, unless inimically, with the elevation of labor, or of the labor- 
ing class. 

The fundamental ideas on which Protection is based, were im- 
placably on the enslavement of man. 

Hence, Henry Clay, though a slave-holder, was never in sympa- 
thy with the slavery Propahonda, and never enjoyed its confidence, 
because he was a Protectionist, and it was felt instinctively, that 
he could not be heartily devoted at once, to slavery and to Protec- 
tion. 

Hence, John C. Calhoun, though a Protectionist, while in the 
House — as he showed in framing and advocating the tariff" of 1816 
— became an extreme, intense Free-Trader, from the hour in which 
he presented himself to the country as the foremost champion of 
slavery, not as an evil to be borne, but a good to be cherished, 
perpetuated, extended. 

" instinct is a great matter ;" and the Southern aristocracy of the 
last age could not help regarding every cotton-factory erected 
within their domain, as a nursery, and citadel of abolition. 

No matter, though only whites were employed in it, no matter 
though each of these were surcharged with pride of caste and ne- 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 469 

gro-hate, they felt that there was an inevitable antagonism between 
a diversified, intelligent industry and their darling institution, and 
that the outbreak of open war between them, was merely a ques- 
tion of time. The South of 1815-60, had every element of manufac- 
turing prosperity, but that of intelligent labor ; she could not have 
this and slavery together ; and her ruling caste, regarding slavery 
as the pax-amount good, naturally frowned upon and froze out 
manufactures. An instant profounder than any logic, impelled 
them to this : a like instinct impelled the Congress of 1860-61, so 
soon as the slaveholders had deserted their scats, to inaugurate the 
war of secession, to frame and enact a Protective Tariff. I insist, 
then, that the consideration of cheapness, though important, is not 
all important ; that "the life is more than meat ;" that, in laying 
the foundations of a national policy, we are to consider not alone 
by what course we may obtain our supply of sheetings, flannels, or 
iron, at the lowest cash price, but how we shall most surely and 
fully develop and employ the entire industrial capacity of our peo- 
ple. Even if it were as true as it is false, that we might make 
more money by devoting the entire energies of our people to the 
growing of corn or cotton, than by a broadly diversified industry, 
it would still be a grave, a fatal blunder to do this ; because it 
could not fail to doom the masses to relative ignorance and barbar- 
ism — to obstruct their intellectual as well as industrial develop- 
ment, and struct their growth in civilization and all the amenities 
of life. 

Infinite are the uses of labor ; but its highest and noblest fruition 
is Man 1 

Born and reared in rural life, with strong social and filial love, 
a firm believer in labor, as the primary necessity of man on 
earth ; Mr. Greeley could not be otherwise than a friend to the 
fanner, and one earnestly devoted to the elevation and wise direction 
of the duties of the husbandman. 

He therefore concieved, in the rapid intellectual and material 
progress of our people, the necessity for contributing something 
from his store-house of mentality, for the interest and elevation, 
of the farmers of America. Thus considering, he began in 1870 to 
contribute a series of essays to the Tribune, upon the various 
labors, and department of the farming business. These essays, fif- 



470 HORACE GREELEY 

ty- three in number, were published early in 1871, in one volume, 
bearing the following title and dedication : 

WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING : 

A SERIES or 

BRIEF AND PLAIN EXPOSITIONS 

OP 

PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE, 
AS AN ART BASED UPON SCIENCE t 

BY HORACE GREELET. 



"I know 
That where the spade is deepest driven, 
The best fruits grow." 

John G. Whittier. 



TO 

THE MAN OF OUR AGE, 
WHO SHALL MAKE THE FIRST PLOW PROPELLED BY 

STEAM, 

ON OTHER MECHANICAL POWER, 

WHEREBY NOT LESS THAN 

TEN ACRES PER DAT 

SHALL BE THOROUGHLY PULVERIZED TO A 

DEPTH OF TWO FEET, 

AT A COST OF NOT MORE THAN TWO DOLLARS PER ACRE. 

THIS WORK IS ADMIRINGLY DEDICATED 
BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 471 

The volume is also prefaced with the following significant re- 
marks by the author : 

Men have written wisely and usefully, in illustration and aid of 
Agriculture, from the platform of pure science. Acquainted with 
the laws of vegetable growth and life, they so expounded and elu- 
cidated those laws that farmers apprehended and profitably 
obeyed them. 

Others have written to equally good purpose, who knew little 
of science, but were adepts in practical agriculture, according to 
the maxims and usages of those who have successfully followed 
aud dignified the farmer's calling. 

I rank with neither of these honored classes. My practical 
knowledge of agriculture is meager, and mainly acquired in a 
childhood long by-gone ; while, of science, I have but a smatter- 
ing, if even that. They are right, therefore, who urge that my 
qualifications for writing on agriculture are slender indeed. 

I only lay claim to an invincible willingness to be made wiser 
to-day than I was yesterday, and a lively faith in the possibility — ■ 
nay, the feasibility, the urgent necessity, the imminence — of very 
great improvements in our ordinary dealings with the soil. 

I know that a majority of those who would live by its tillage, 
eed it too sparingly, and stir it too slightly and grudgingly. 

I know that we do too liUle for it, and expect it, thereupon, to 
do too much for us. 

I know that, in other pursuits, it is only work thoroughly well 
done that is liberally compensated ; and I see no reason why farm- 
ing should prove an exception to this stern but salutary law. I 
may be, indeed, deficient in knowledge of what constitutes good 
farming, but not in faith that the very best farming is that which 
is morally sure of the largest and most certain reward. I hope to 
be generally accorded the merit of having set forth the title I pre- 
tend to know in language that few can fail to understand. 

I have avoided, so far as 1 could, the use of terms and distinct- 
ions unfamiliar to the general ear. 

The little I know of oxygen, hydrogen, etc., I have kept to 
myself; since whatever I might say of them would be useless to 
those already acquainted with the elementary truths of chemistry, 
and only perplexing to others. 

If there is a paragraph in the following pages which will not be 
readily and fully understood by an average school-boy of fifteen 
years, then I have failed to make that oaragraph as simple and 
lucid as I intended. 



472 HORACE GREELEY 

Many farmers are dissuaded from following the suggestions of 
writers on agriculture by the consideration of expense. They 
urge that, though men of large wealth may (perhaps) profitably 
do what is recommended, their means are utterly inadequate 
they might as well be urged to work their oxen in a silver yoke 
with gold bows. 

I have aimed to commend mainly, if not uniformly, such im- 
provements only in our grandfathers' husbandry as a farmer 
worth $1,000, or even may adopt — not all at once, but gradually, 
and from year to year. 

I hope I shall thus convince some farmers that draining, irriga- 
tion, deep plowing, heavy fertilizing, etc., are not beyond their 
power, as so many have too readily presumed and pronounced 
them. 

That I should say very little, and that little vaguely, of the 
breeding and raising of animals, the proper time to sow or plant, 
etc., etc., can need no explanation. 

By far the larger number of those whose days have mainly been 
given to farming, know more than I do of these details, and are 
better authority than I am with regard to them. 

On the other hand, I have traveled extensively, and not heed- 
lessly, and have seen and pondered certain broader features of the 
earth's improvement and tillage which many stay-at-home culti- 
vators have had little or no opportunity to study or even observe. 

By restricting the topics with which I deal, the probability of 
treating some of them to the average farmer's profit is increased. 

And, whatever may be his judgment of this slight work, I knoio 
that, if I could have perused one of like tenor half a century ago, 
when I was a patient worker and an eager reader in my father's 
humble home, my subsequent career, would have beeu less anx- 
ious and labors less exhausting than they have been. 

Could 1 then have caught but a glimpse of the beneficent of a 
farmer's life — could I have realized that he is habitually (even 
though blindly) dealing with problems which require and reward 
the amplest knowledge of nature's laws, the fullest command of 
science, the noblest efforts of the human intellect, I should have 
since pursued the peaceful, unobtrusive round of an enthusiastic 
and devoted, even though not an eminent or fortunate tiller of the 
soil. Even the little that is unfolded in the ensuing pages would 
have sufficed to give me a far larger, truer, nobler conception of 
what the farmer of moderate means might and should be, than I 
then attained. 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 473 

I needed to realize that observation and reflection, study and 
mental acquisition, are as essential and as serviceable in his pursuit 
as in others, and that no man can have acquired so much general 
knowledge that a farmer's exigencies will not afford scope and use 
for it all. I abandoned the farm, because I fancied that 1 had already 
perceived, if I had not as yet clearly comprehended, all there was 
in the farmer's calling; whereas, I had not really learned much 
more of it than a good plow-horse ought to understand. And 
though great progress has been made since then, there are still 
thousands of boys, in this enlightened age and conceited genera- 
tion, who have scarcely a more adequate and just conception of 
agriculture than 1 then had. 

If I could hope to reach even one in every hundred of this class, 
and induce him to ponder, impartially, the contents of this slight 
volume, I know that I shall not have written it in vain. 

We need to mingle more thought with our work. Some think 
till their heads ache intensely; others work till their backs are 
crooked to the semblance of half an iron hoop; but the workers 
and the thinkers are apt to be distinct classes ; whereas, they 
should be the same. 

Admit that it has always been thus, it by no means follows that 
it always should or shall be. 

In an age when every laborer's son may bo fairly educated if he 
will, there should be more fruit gathered from the tree of knowl- 
edge to justify the magnificent promise of its foliage and its bloom. 
I rejoice in the belief that the graduates of our common schools 
are better ditch-diggers, when they can not otherwise employ 
themselves to better advantage, than though they knew not how 
to read ; hut that is not enough. 

If the untaught peasantry of Russia or Hungary grow more 
wheat per acre than the comparatively educated farmers of the 
United States, our education is found wanting. That is a vicious 
and defective, if not radically false, mental training, which leaves 
its subject no better qualified for any useful calling, than though 
he were unlettered. 

But I forbear to pursue this ever-fruitful theme. I look back on 
this day, completing my sixtieth year, over a life, which must now 
be near its close, of constant effort to achieve ends whereof many 
seem, in the long retrospect, to have been transitory and unimpor- 
tant, however they may have loomed upon my vision, when in 
their immediate presence. 

One achievement only of our age and country — the banishment 
of human chattelhood from our soil — seems now to have been worth 



474 HORACE GREELEY 

all the requisite efforts, the agony and hloody sweat through which 
it was accomplished. But another reform, not so palpably de- 
manded by justice and humanity, yet equally conducive to the well- 
being of our race, presses hard on its heels, and insists, that we 
shall accord it instant and earnest consideration. It is the eleva- 
tion of labor from the plane of drudgery and servility to one of 
self-respect, self-guidance, and genuine independence, so as to ren- 
der the human worker no more cog in a vast, revolving wheel, 
whose motion he can neither modify nor arrest, but a partner in 
the enterprise, which is toil, is freely contributed to promote, a 
sharer in the outlay, the risk, the loss and gain, which it involves. 
This end can be attained through the training of the generations 
who are to succeed us to observe and reflect, to live for other and 
higher ends than those of present sensual gratification, and to feel 
that no achievement is beyond the reach of their wisely combined 
and able self-directed efforts. To that part of the generation of 
farmers just coming upon the stage of responsible action, who have 
intelligently resolved, that the future of American agriculture shall 
evince decided and continuous improvement on its past, this little 
book is respectfully commended. H. G. 

New York, Feb. 1, 1871. 

This closes, for the present, Mr. Greeley's labors in book- 
making. 

Some four of his works are out of print, while four are now 
actively in the book-market of the country. His works have thus 
far met with a liberal sale, as will be seen by the figures below : 

TRIBUNE ALMANAC. 

Worthy to be recorded among the literary works of Mr. Gree- 
ley, is the " Tribune Almanac," which has been the most popular 
publication of its kind, in the country. 

Mr. Greeley began its publication in 1838, with a view to fur- 
nish an elaborate and reliable annual document, containing po- 
litical statistics, such as every politician and editor would demand 
as a reference guide. The " Tribune Almanac " has been pub- 
lished for thirty-four years. It has become so popular, that its 
publication is almost indispensable to the politician and editor : 

Names of Books. No. of copies sold. 

Hints toward Keforms, 3,000 

Glances at Europe, 5,000 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 475 

Slavery Extension, 10,000 

Overland Journey to California, 2,000 

American Conflict, 100,000 

Recollections of a Busy Life, 12,000 

Political Economy, 2,000 

What I know about Farming, 3,000 
Tribune Almanac, annual circulation, 50,000 to 100,000 

Total copies sold, 137,000 

Parton's Life of Mr. Greeley, has sold, to the number of 40,000 
copies. 

Mr. Greeley's own statement of his authorship, is herewith 
subjoined, from his " Recollections of a Busy Life." 

The reader will gather additional interest from this feature of 
his life by reading his own story upon the subject • 

AUTHORSHIP — WRITING HISTORY. 

Almost every one who can write at all is apt, in the course of his 
life, to write something, which he fancies, others may read with 
pleasure or with profit. 

For my own part, beyond a few boyish letters to relatives and 
intimate friends, I began my efforts at composition as an appren- 
tice, in a newspaper office, by condensing the news, more especially 
the foreign, which I was directed to put into type, from the city 
journals received at our office ; endeavored to give in fewer words 
the gist of the information, in so far, at least, as it would be likely 
to interest our rural readers. Our editor, during the latter part 
of my stay in Poultney, with a Baptist clergyman, whose pastoral 
charge was at some distance, and who was therefore absent from 
us much of his time, and allowed me a wide discretion in preparing 

matter for the paper. 

This I imin-oved, not only in the selection, but in the condensa- 
tion of news. 

The rudimentary knowledge of the arts of composition thus ac- 
quiring, was gradually improved during my brief experience as a 
journeyman, in various newspaper establishments, and afterward 
as a printer of sundry experimental journals in this city ; on that, 
I began my distinctive, avowed editorial career in the New-York- 
er, with a considerable experience as a writer of articles and par- 
agraphs. 

I had even written verses — never fluently noi\ happily — but tol- 



476 HORACE GREELEY 

erably well measured, and faintly evincing an admiration of By- 
ron, Mrs. Hemans, and other popular writers — an admiration 
which I mistook for inspiration or genius. 

While true poets are few, those who imagine themselves capable 
of becoming such, are many ; but I never advanced even to this 
grade. I knew that my power of expression in verse, was defect- 
ive, as though I had an impediment in my speech, or spoke with 
my mouth full of pebbles ; and I very soon renounced the fetters 
of verse, content to utter my thoughts thenceforth in unmistakable 
prose. It is a comfort to know that not many survive who remem- 
ber having read any of the few rhymed effusions. 

I had been nearly twenty years a constant writer for the news- 
paper press, 'ere I ventured (in 1850,) to put forth a volume. This 
was entitled, "Hints toward Reforms," and consisted mainly oi 
lectures and addresses, prepared for delivery, before village lyce- 
ums, and other literary associations from time to time, throughout 
the preceding six or eight years. 

Most of them regarded social questions ; but their range was 
very wide, including Political Economy, the Right to Labor, Land 
for the Landless, Protection to Home Industry, Popular Education, 
Capital Punishment, Abstinence from Alcoholic potations, etc., etc. 

My volume was an ordinary duodecimo, of 425 pages, compactly 
filled with the best thoughts I had to offer ; all designed to 
strengthen and diffuse sympathy with misfortune and suffering, 
and to promote the substantial, permanent well-being of man- 
kind. 

"When I had fully prepared it, I sent the copy to the Harpers ; 
and they agreed to publish it fairly, on condition that I paid the 
cost of stereotyping, (about $400,) when they would give me (as I 
recollect,) ten cents per copy on all they sold. I cheerfully accept- 
ed the terms, and the work was published accordingly. 

I believe the sales nearly re-imbursed my outlay for stereotyp- 
ing; so that I attained the dignity of authorship at a very moderate 
cost. Green authors are apt to suffer from disappointment and 
chagrin at the failure of their works to achieve them fame and for- 
tune. I was fairly treated by the press and the public, and had no 
more desire than reason to complain. I have given these unflat- 
tering reminiscences so fully, because I would be useful to young 
aspirants to authorship, even at the cost of losing their good will. 
I have been solicited by many— O, so many ! — of them to find pub- 
lishers for the poems or the novel of each, in the sanguine expecta- 
tion that a publisher was the only requisite to his achievement of 
fortune and renown ; when, in fact, each had great need of a pub- 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 477 

lie, none (as yet) of a publisher. You are sure, O, gushing youth ! 
that your poems are such as no other youth ever wrote — such as 
Pindar, or Dante, or Milton, would read with delight — and I acqui- 
esce in your judgment. But the great mass of readers have not 
" the vision and the faculty divine;'' they are prosaic, plodding, 
heavy-witted persons, who read and admire what they are told 
others have read and admired before them — if the discovery of new 
Homers and Shake&peares were to rest with them, none would 
henceforth be distinguished from the common herd. You, we will 
agree, are such a genius as heaven vouchsafes us once in two or 
three centuries ; but can you dream that such are discerned and 
appreciated by the great mass of their cotemporaries ? How much, 
think you, did Homer, or Dante, or Milton, receive for the sale of 
his works to the general public ? Nay : how much did Shakes- 
pear's poetry, as poetry, contribute to his sustenance ? Nay, more : 
do you, having acquired the greenback-cost of adding a volume to 
your library, buy the span new verses of Stiggins, Dobbs or C. Pugs- 
ley Jagger? You know that you do not; that you buy Shelley, or 
Beranger, or Tennyson, instead. Then how can you expect the 
great mass of us, who have not the faintest claim to genius or spe- 
cial discernment, to recognize your untrumpeted merit, and buy 
your volume ? You ought to know that we shall follow your exam- 
ple, and buy — if we ever buy poems at all — those of some one whose 
fame has already reached even our dull ears and fixed our heedless 
attention. Hence it is, that no judicious publisher will buy your 
manuscript, nor print it, even if you were to make him a present 
of it. He cannot afford it. And you talk of the stupidity, the incom- 
petency, the rapacity, or the cruelty of publishers, is wholly 
aside from the case. Not one first work in a hundred ever pays 
the cost of its publication. True, yours may be the rare excep- 
tion; but the publisher is hardly to blame that he does not see it, 

A year or two later, on my return from my first visit to Europe, 
I was surprised by an offer to publish in a volume, the letters I had 
written to the Tribune, and pay me copyright thereon. I knew 
right well, that they did not deserve such distinction, that they 
were flimsy and superficial — things of a day ; to be read in the 
morning and forgotten at night. But it seems that some who had 
read them in the Tribune, wished to have them in a more compact 
and portable shape ; while it was highly improbable that any oth- 
ers would be tempted to buy them. So I consented, and revised 
them ; and they duly appeared as " Glances at Europe " in 1851-52. 
I recollect my share of the proceeds was about five hundred dol- 



478 HORACE GREELEY 

lars, for which I had taken no pecuniary risk, and done very little 
labor. Had the work been profounder, and more deserving, I pre- 
sume it would not have sold so well — at all events not so speedily. 

Years passed; I made my long - meditated overland journey to 
California ; and the letters I wrote during that trip, printed from 
week to week in the Tribune, were collected on my return, and 
printed in a volume nearly equal in size to either of my former. 

As a photograph of scenes that were then passing away, of a re- 
gion on the point of rapid and striking transformation, I judge 
that this "Overland Journey to California in 1859," may be deemed 
worth looking into by a dozeu persons per annum, for the next 
twenty years. 

Its publishers failed, however, very soon after its appearance, so 
that my returns from it for copyright were inconsiderable. 

And now came the Presidential contest of 1860, closely followed 
by secession and civil war, whereof I had no thought of ever be- 
coming the historian. In fact, not till that war was placed on its 
true basis of a struggle for liberation, and not conquest, by Presi- 
dent Lincoln's successive proclamations of freedom, would I have 
consented to write its history. Not till I had confronted the Re- 
bellion as a positive desolation force, right here in New York, at 
the doors of earnest Republicans, in the hunting down and killing 
of defenceless, fleeing blacks, in the burning of the Colored Orphan 
Asylum, and in the mobbing and tiring of the Tribune office, could 
I have moved to delineate its impulses, aims', progress, and im- 
pending catastrophe. A very few days after the national triumph 
at Gettysburg, with the kindred and almost simultaneous successes 
of General Grant in the capture of Vicksburg, and General Banks 
in that of Port Hudson, with the consequent suppression of the (so- 
called,) " Riots " in this city, I was visited by two strangers, who 
introduced themselves as Messrs. Newton and O. D. Case, pub- 
lishers, from Hartford, and solicited me to write the history of the 
Rebellion. I hesitated ; for my labors and responsibilities were al- 
ready most arduous and exacting, yet could not, to any considera- 
ble extent, be transferred to others. The compensation offered 
would be liberal, in case the work should attain a very large sale, 
but otherwise, quite moderate. I finally decided to undertake the 
task, knowing well that it involved severe, protracted effort on my 
part ; and I commenced upon it a few weeks later, after collecting 
such materials as were then accessible. I hired for my workshop, 
a room on the third floor of the new Bible House, on Eighth street 



AS A MAN OF LETTEKS. 479 

and Third and Fourth avenues, procured the requisite furniture, 
hired a secretary, brought thither my materials, and set to work. 
Hither I repaired, directly after breakfast each week-day morning, 
and read and compared the various documents, official reports, 
newspaper letters, etc., etc., that served as materials for a chapter, 
while my secretary visited libraries at my direction, and searched 
out material among my documents and elsewhere. The great 
public libraries of New York — Society, Historical, Astor and Mer- 
cantile — all cluster around the Bible House ; the two last named 
being within a bow-shot. I occasionally visited either of them, in 
personal quest of material otherwise inaccessible. When I had the 
substance of my next chapter pretty fairly in mind, I began to com- 
pose that chapter, having often several authorities conveniently 
disposed around me, with that on which I principally relied, lying 
open before me. 

I oftener wrote out my first draft, merely indicating extracts 
where such were to be quoted at some length, leaving these to 
be inserted by my secretary when he came to transcribe my text ; 
but I sometimes dictated to my secretary who took short-hand 
notes of what I said, and wrote them out at his leisure. 

My first chapter was thus composed at one sitting, after some 
days had been given to the arrangement of materials ; but usually 
two days, or even three, were given to the composition of each of 
the longer chapters, after I had prepared and digested its ma- 
terial. 

One rule was to lock the door on resuming composition, and de- 
cline all solicitation to open till the day's allotted task had been 
finished ; and this was easy while my " den " was known to very 
few, but that knowledge was gradually diffused ; and more and 
more persons found excuses for dropping in ; until I was at length 
subject to daily, and even more frequent, though seldom to pro- 
tracted, interruptions. I think, however, that if I should ever 
again undertake such a labor, I would allow the location of my 
"den" to be known to but one person at the Tribune office, who 
should be privileged to knock at its door in cases of extreme 
urgency, and I would have that door open to no one beside but my 
secretary and myself. 

Even my proof-sheet should await me at the Tribune office, 
whither I always repaired, to commence a day's work as editor, 
after finishing one as author at the " den. " 

A chapter having been fairly written out or transcribed by my 
secretary, while I was " reading up " for another, I carefully re- 
vised and sent it to the Stereotyper, who sent me his second and 



480 HORACE GREELEY 

third proofs, which were successively corrected before the pages 
were ready to be cast. 

Sometimes, the discovery of new material compelled the revis- 
ion and recast of a chapter which had been passed as complete. 
And though the material was very copious — more so, I presume 
than that from which the history of any former war was written- 
it was still exceedingly imperfect and contradictory. For in- 
stance ! when I came to the pioneer Secession of South Carolina, 
I wished to study it in the proceedings and debates of her Legisla- 
ture and Convention as reported in at least one of her own jour- 
nals ; and of these I found but a single file preserved in our city, 
(at the Society Library,) though four years had not expired since 
that secession occurred. A year later, I probably could not have 
found one at all. 

Of the score or so of speeches made by Jefferson Davis, often 
from cars, while on his way from Mississippi to assume at Mont 
gomery the Presidency of the Confederacy, I found but two con- 
densed reports ; and one of these, I apprehend, was apocryphal. 
In many cases, I found officer**, reported killed in battles, whom I 
afterward found fighting in subsequent battles ;' whence I con- 
clude that they had not been killed so dead as they might have 
been. 

Some of the errors into which I was thus led by my authorities 
were not corrected till after my work was printed ; when the gen- 
tlemen thus conclusively disposed of began to write me, insisting 
that, though desperately wounded at the battle in question, they 
had decided not to give up the ghost, and so still remained in the 
band of embodied, rather than that of disembodied souls. 

Their testimony was so direct and pointed that I was con- 
strained to believe it, and to correct page after page accordingly. 
I presume a few, even yet remain consigned to the shades in my 
book, who, nevertheless, to this day, consume rations of beef and 
pork with most unspiritual regularity and self-satisfaction. 

There doubtless remain some other errors, though I have cor- 
rected many ; and, as I have stated, many more particulars than my 
rivals in the same field have usually done, it is probable that my 
work originally embodied more errors of fact or incident than al- 
most any other. Yet " the American Conflict" will be consulted, 
at least by historians, and I shall be judged by it, after most of 
us now living shall have mingled with the dust. 

An eminent antagonist of my political views has pronounced it 
"the fairest one-sided book ever written;" but it is more than 
that. It is one of the clearest statements yet made of the long 



AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 481 

train of causes which led irresistibly to the war for the Union, 
showing why that war was the natural and righteous consequence 
of the American people's general and guilty complicity in the 
crime of upholding and diffusing human slavery. 

I proffer it as my contribution toward a fuller and more vivid 
realization of the truth that God governs this world by mortal 
laws as active, immutable, and all pervading as can be operative 
in any other, and that every collusion or compromise with evil 
must surely invoke a prompt and signal retribution. 

The sale of my history was very large and steady down to the 
date of clamor raised touching the bailing of Jefferson Davis, 
when it almost ceased for a season ; thousands who had subscribed 
for it refusing to take their copies, to the sore disappointment and 
loss of the agents, who supplied themselves with fifty to a hun- 
dred copies each, in accordance with their orders ; and who thus 
found themselves suddenly and most unexpectedly involved in 
serious embarrassments. 

I grieved that they were thus afflicted for what, at the worst, 
was no fault of theirs ; while their loss by every copy thus refused 
was twenty times my own. 

I trust, however, that their undeserved embarrassments were, 
for the most part, temporary — that a juster sense of what was due 
to them ultimately prevailed — that all of them who did not mis- 
take the character of a fitful gust of popular passion, and there- 
upon sacrifice their hard earnings, have since been relieved from 
their embarrassment ; and that the injury and injustice they suf- 
fered without deserving have long since been fully repaired. 

At all events, the public has learued that I act upon my convic- 
tions without fear of personal consequences ; hence, any future 
paroxysm of popular rage against me is likely to be less violent, in 
view of the fact that this one proved so plainly ineffectual. 

That Mr. Greeley, is eminently a man of letters, en- 
titled by ability and character to rank among the ablest writers of 
the country, there is no manner of doubt. If it be argued that he 
is not classical, not polished in schools and colleges, and stuffed 
with foreign and foolish words, it can be maintained to his 
greater praise and credit, that he has acquired as large a fund of 
the knowledge, of the world's history and civilization, as any liv- 
ing man, besides having a superior ability, to use the pen with 
as much power as any writer of this age. 
31 



482 HOKACE GREELEY AS A MAN OP LETTERS. 

Not only is Mr. Greeley an editor, without a peer in this or 
any other land, but he has written and lectured more, on various 
subjects of public interest, than any other man, living or dead ; 
nor has any other editor of the country, issued as many volumes 
from the public press. Still more, he has written nothing to 
swell the stock of trashy literature, so freely and bountifully is- 
sued from the American press. All his volumes are earnest, 
generous and able efforts, to do some good to his country and his 
fellows. Therefore, let him stand forth, truly written and truly 
honored, in the "Pantheon of Progress," a mental and moral 
light of our age — our countryman by birth, and by fraternity 
an elder brother. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HORACE GREELEY AS A REFORMER. 




V 



'INCE Martin Luther, the western nations have heard much 
|^/ about Reforms and Reformers. Europe and America have 
been fruitful fields, in which men and women, of distinction 
and ability, have gone forth to labor in opposition, to some ex- 
isting errors in church, State and society, and in defence of new 
creeds and principles, announced and promulgated. Yet as man- 
kind has suffered in the name of religion and liberty, so, too, have 
the people been imposed upon in the name of Reform. Fanatics, 
and ambitious men and women, of corrupt hearts and weak under- 
standings, have often convulsed society by pretended, but false 
efforts to benefit their fellows. Still the world has had its true re- 
formers. Great and heroic souls, who have gone forth to battle 
in society and State, for the good of mankind. They arose above 
their countrymen, and with superior mental and moral illumina- 
tion, shed new light in the darken paths where men and women 
walked in ignorance and sin. Perhaps, in this age of ours, there 
is no embodiment of man or woman, which, when truly represen- 
tative, is so great and so valued, as the true reformer. His work 
is greater than that of the distinctive editor, politician or states- 
man. " The true reformer must be superior to his age. If he is 
not more advanced than those minds of the age, from which orig- 
inated all the prevailing laws and numerous customs, then he is 
not their superior, and cannot be their teacher. His value to his 
age and to the world, consists in his superiority to them. But in 
proportion, as he is superior to the received and established laws 
and doctrines of the day, will his position be misunderstood his 



484 HORACE GREELEY 

motives misapprehended, Ms teachings misrepresented, and his in- 
trinsic worth unknown. 

" The multitude, not standing Avhere he stands, nor beholding 
what he beholds, may look upon him as a deceiver, a mystic, as 
an enthusiast, or a philosophical madman. His position is nec- 
essarily far above the ordinary doctrines and theories of the day, 
to which the masses are constantly tending, and in which they are 
mostly educated. He is therefore repulsed, disliked, preached 
against, calumniated, and subjected to such imprisonment and 
torture, as the liberality and civilization of his age will permit. 
There is necessarily a vast difference between him and the people. 
And it is no more unreasonable that he should not be understood 
and appreciated by the people, than that he himself should not 
comprehend minds still superior in spheres unseen. Therefore the 
great and latent, and fruitful minds of all ages and nations, have 
suffered and will suffer, from the combined persecutions of ignor- 
ance and prejudice, which coevally prevail in the world. There- 
fore, genius will continue to be persecuted and crucified. And, 
although God will continue to manifest himself in the souls, and 
thoughts, and deeds of men, blind ignorance and intolerance will 
concentrate their forces to deride, falsify and destroy the medium 
of the revelation. The true reformer must be good and great. 
But unfortunately for him, his positions and qualifications are 
powerful causes of the development of envy, jealousy, and antog- 
onistical feelings in ambitious minds. Some deride, because they 
are ignorant ; some deride because they are envious ; and still 
others deride because they have counter-interests and professions 
to present to the people. But genius is divine and eternal, and 
it will live and fulfill its glorious mission, though the powers of 
church and State join to destroy its birth-place, or the medium of 
its sublime manifestations. 

" Every nation has had its reformer,and itstruly original auth- 
or, and its truly inspired hero. And every age has given birth 
to some important truth — thus contributing something toward 
gratifying the insatiable thirst for wisdom and knowledge. But 
every age and nation has also had its demagogues, its racks and 



AS A REFORMER. 485 

its stakes — in the mind, or out of the mind — by which to cramp 
and crush, and crucify its greatest discoverer, or its most inspired 
prophet. 

" Far down in the depths of humanity's history, I can perceive 
uncultivated, simple and enthusiastic hearts, beating for the gen- 
eral good of mankind. The plains of Arabia have been traversed 
by the savage ; but some representative of refinement and civili- 
zation, has led that savage onward — some cool and powerful 
chieftain has been his friend and father. The savage and bar- 
barian tribes of the desert were never without God ; they had 
some kind of a reformer in their midst — a nobleman by nature, 
who would unite their interests, and lead them to the accomplish- 
ment of wiser ends. Combine the indefatigable zeal and fanati- 
cism of the savage chief, with the tender and protecting qualities 
of the desert patriarch, and you have an inspired patriot — a spirit 
replete with power, philanthropy and Liberty. 

" Combine the qualities of a patriot with a spirit of determina- 
tion and intrepidity, and you have a sublime hero. And he too, 
is a reformer. He rises superior to time-sanctified customs, and 
throws open the gates to new discoveries. His unconquerable 
spirit inspires timid minds with power, and his daring courage 
strengthens their efforts to fresh directions. 

" Combine the splendid and powerful qualities of the patriot and 
the hero, with thought and deliberation, and you have a legislator. 
And he too, is a reformer. He has an indwelling love for his 
country and humanity ; a desire to explore and acquire a knowl- 
edge of new regions of thought. 

" Combine the qualities of the patriot, the hero and the legisla- 
tor, with a love of the sublime and beautiful, and you have a poet. 
And he, too, is a reformer. The illumination of his genius, lights 
up the mysterious caverns of his soul, and unfolds serene thoughts 
in the inmost sanctuary of his being. The sympathies of human- 
ity expand his heart ; and prophecies of future peace press his pen 
to utterance. 

" Combine the qualities of the patriot, the hero, the legislator and 



486 HORACE GREELEY 

the poet, with a love of refinement and elevation, and you have a 
true artist. And he too, is a reformer. 

" Combine the qualities of the patriot, the hero, the legislator, 
the poet and the artist, with a love of wisdom and knowledge, 
and you have the philosopher. And he, too, is a reformer. 

" Combine the qualities of the patriot, the hero, the legislator, 
the poet, the artist, and the philosopher, with a love of the un- 
seen and eternal, and you have a theologian. And he too, is a 
reformer. His mission is to the soul ; his duty is to cultivate its 
powers, and elevate its impulses. 

" Combine the qualities of the patriot, the hero, the legislator, 
the poet, the artist, the philosopher, and the theologian, with a 
universal love and a desire for universal harmony, and you have 
the true reformer. 

" The true reformer is superior to his age because, while the 
world of minds about him are disqualified to rule and govern 
themselves, and have so much duplicity as to require legislation 
and positive enforcement of mere human or social laws, he is 
actuated alone by the universal and immutable laws of love to 
man. This law governs his actions in all his multifarious rela- 
tions, and intercourse with his fellow- creatures. It lives in his 
soul, and manifests itself in his actions and life. 

" The true reformer is superior to his age, because while the 
world of minds about him are assisting to support and perpetrate 
the present order of things in trade, government and religion, ho 
gtrives to introduce the principles of association, and of the reor- 
ganization of capital and interests. He is pained with the injus- 
tice and dissatisfaction in society, occasioned by its false and dis- 
united state." 

With the foregoing statement of the elements embodied in the 
true reformer, let us proceed to consider Mr. Greeley in the 
light of his advanced thought, and how near he conforms to the 
progressive condition of those bold and highly developed men who 
have occasionally been born into the world and moved among 
their fellows as great, moral and intellectual light-houses. That 
he combines in the largest degree those elements of character and 



AS A REFORMER. 487 

mentality, which make up the true reformer, there is no manner 
of doubt. 

His mental grasp reaches beyond the most of the minds of the 
world's people, and his thoughts have, from the beginning, proven 
him to be a Radical by instinct, and a believer in the humanitarian 
progress of the race. Such is the cast and the illumination of 
his mind that he saw at an early age, errors in the private and 
public acts of men which his judgment disapproved, and his con- 
science held to be criminal. When he arrived at mature man- 
hood his opinions and views upon all questions of civilization, in- 
cluding the principles and administration of governments, the 
social and religious structure of society, the commercial and in- 
dustrial interests of communities, and the education and habits of 
individuals, all evinced that he was a man who had far out-grown 
the mental and moral status of his age ; hence, the cry every- 
where that he was a man of isms, a man of crotchets, and a 
" weak sentamentalist, misled by a maudlin philosophy." But 
faithful to the true impulses of his nature, he turned neither to 
the right nor to the left, but moved steadily forward to a perfect 
fulfillment of a divine purpose and mission for which he was born. 
When he had reached the age of manhood, and looked through 
history and over the nations of the earth, he found the world full 
of all manner of errors, of crime, falsehood and misdirection. He 
found in his own land a government fostering and perpetuating 
the most gigantic and inhuman system of slavery that man had 
ever established. He spared no time, neither deviated from the 
path of duty, to make war upon that infernal system until its 
death. 

Owing to his well-known opposition to the Mexican war, a cor- 
respondent of the Louisville Courier, sent to the Tribune from 
one of the battle-fields, the following brief, but sad story, which 
will, whenever read, sicken the heart of man or woman. No 
human record furnishes a more brief, but pointed story of sor- 
row: 



488 HORACE GREELEY 

PICTURE FOR THE PRESIDENT'S BED-ROOM. 

[designed for the tribune,] 
IS THIS WAR ? 

Montery, Oct. 7, 1846. 
While I was stationed with our left wing in one of the forts, on 
the evening of the 21st, I saw a Mexican woman busily engaged in 
carrying bread and water to the wounded men of both armies. I 
saw this ministering angel raise the head of a wounded man, give 
him water and food, and then carefully bind up his wound with a 
handkerchief she took from her own head. After having ex- 
hausted her supplies, she went back to her own house to get more 
bread and water for others. As she was returning on her mission 
of mercy, to comfort other wounded persons, I heard the report of 
a gun, and saw the poor, innocent creature fall dead ! I think it 
was an accidental shot that struck her. I would not be willing to 
believe otherwise. It made me sick at heart, and turning from 
the scene, I involuntarily raised my eyes toward heaven, and 
thought, great God ! and is this ivar ? Passing the spot next day, 
I saw the body still lying there with the bread by her side, and the 
broken gourd, with a few drops of water still in it — emblems of 
her errand. We buried her ; and while we were digging her 
grave, cannon balls flew around us like hail. — Cor. Louisville 
Commercial. 

Mr. Greeley saw spread out before him, a false system of so- 
cial society, wherein weak men and women were left to the mercy 
and prey of the strong and the vicious. 

Many years ago, when he almost stood alone in defense of 
Woman's Rights, he wrote as follows, on the subject, in the Tri- 
bune : 

EMPLOYMENT for women. 

We have not given so much space as formerly to recent move- 
ments in favor of " Woman's Rights," not because that movement 
has lost either importance or favor in our eyes, but simply because 
we try to print a newspaper, and cannot afford nearly so much 
room for the twentieth iteration of a truth as we accorded to its 
original utterance. 



AS A REFORMER. 489 

Hereafter, we can only publish so much of those proceedings as 
is essential to a fair history of the times, including such sugges- 
tions of reform as are substantially novel, or else particularly 
adapted to some existing exigency. 

The point of view in which the Radical viciousness of the pres- 
ent position of woman appears to us most striking, is that of em- 
ployment. 

To be denied the right of suffrage may be an ideal grievance 
(though the source and support of others that are sternly practical)' 
while our interest in and attention to costume has not been suffi- 
cient to enable us to decide with any confidence on the merits of 
Bloomerism. But that a young man of twenty, with any sort of 
aptitude for work, can always find ready employment that will 
bring him ten to thirty dollars per month above his board, while 
his sister, equally willing, energetic and efficient, can with far 
more difficulty find work that will yield her half so much ; this 
is an enormous and chronic injustice, which scepticism cannot 
gain-say, nor levity dissolve in ridicule. 

What has Conservatism to offer respecting it ? 

What should Christianity impel us to do ? 

To tell our hundreds of thousands of poor young women, who 
are constantly looking this way and that for opportunities to earn 
an honorable and comfortable living, that the end of their exis- 
tence is to be good wives and mothers, is to insult them most stu- 
pidly. 

What prospect have they, or the half of them to become wives 
at all, while so many men spurn the restraints of marriage, and 
riot in dissolute pleasure ; and whenso many thousands after thou- 
sands of our young men are lured away by the still increasing 
spirit of adventure, to California, Central America, &c, &c. ? 

It is a decree of fate, that a very large portion of the young 
women of our older and more easterly States must remain single, 
while necessity and self-respect alike forbid that they shall eat the 
bread of idleness. 

They may, if comely, purchase a short season of guilty and de- 
basing luxury by the surrender of all virtue, all sense of decency, 
all intercourse with reputable society, all trust in God, and hope 
of heaven ; and if the Father of Evil had arranged matters on pur- 
pose to drive as many as possible to this horrible alternative, he 
could barely have improved much on the social influences and 
usages which now surround the friendless daughters of the poor. 
Even this is but a limited resource for a very brief season ; and 
still the fact recurs that the great majority of our young women 



490 HORACE GREELEY 

must, for a number of years at all events, earn their bread by in- 
dependent industry. 

How shall they ? and what ? 

Needle-work has hitherto been the main resource of the thou- 
sands disqualified by delicacy of nurture or fragility of muscle for 
rough house-work ; and needle-work is now at its last gasp. 

We shall be careful not again to run into a hornet's nest by 
speaking discriminately of sewing machines ; but, speaking gener- 
ally, we may say — what no one who has looked into the matter 
will deny — that the needle is sure soon to be consigned to the lum- 
ber-room, wherein our grandmothers' ''great wheel," "little 
wheel," loom and "swifts," are now silently mouldering. 

Twenty years more may elapse (though we think not half so 
many will) before the revolution will have been completed; but 
the sewing of a long, straight seam otherwise than by machinery 
is even now a mistake, an anachronism ; and the finger-plied nee- 
dle, though it may be retained a few years longer for button-holes 
and such fancy work, has but a short lease left. 

That ever a garment or shoe was sewed enth-ely by hand, with- 
out the aid of machinery, will be told as a marvel to our grand- 
children and received by them with wondering incredulity. 

The status qtio, therefore, with regard for woman's position is 
simply impossible. She must advance or sink back into a state of 
oriental debasement and abject dependence. A wider scope must 
be accorded to her faculties, or she might better have been born 
without them. Society must either secure her opportunity of 
earning an independent subsistence, or shield her from famine and 
shame with the protecting, though degrading mantle of polygamy 
and virtual slavery. 

The movements of our time, therefore, looking to a wider sphere 
of industrial training and effort for woman, are impelled by a ter- 
rible necessity. 

Place is made for her in the studio of the artist, the shop of the 
mechanic, behind the counter of the merchant, etc., because she 
cannot otherwise exist in the equivocal position to which western 
civilization has raised her. Unless she is to be the substantial 
equal of man out of wedlock, she cannot be his equal in that rela- 
tion. 

If she must marry to live, she will soon be constrained to marry 
whoever will insure her a living ; any requirement on her part of 
fitness or sympathy in the relation must be regarded as an absurd 
and impracticable fastidiousness. 



AS A REFORMER. 491 

This point attained, the assumption that he who can support 
half a dozen wives has a perfect moral, and should have an unob- 
structed legal right to marry that number, is not to be resisted, 
nay: assuming marriage to be the sole condition wherein woman 
may live usefully and worthily, the polygamist becomes a public 
benefactor, especially of the dependent sex. 

"The "Woman's Movement " of our day, thoughtfully consid- 
ered, is, in spite of the vagaries of some of its advocates, essen- 
tially conservative — a change of position to meet a vital though 
noiseless change in the industrial and social elements of woman's 
allotted sphere, and as such should be regarded and respected. 

Against this malformation of the social order, he protested 
with soul, mind and strength. He urged the emancipation and 
organization of labor, its political economy, and its harmonious 
relations with capital. He saw the masses in ignorance, and 
plead for the diffusion of education ; he demanded better teachers 
and better education ; he asked them, for all, the poor as well as 
the rich. And, when visions of empire opened to his mind, he 
gazed over the continent to the setting sun, and his dreams, and 
the desire of his heart was, that school houses in ample numbers 
might dot the prairies and mountain homes, where the millions of 
future sons and daughters of the land were destined to live and 
love. He saw individual profligacy everywhere intruding itself in 
utter ruin of men and women. He plead for temperance, and 
protested against the use of tobacco. He believed with the psalm- 
ist that "righteousness exalteth a nation, and that sin is a re- 
proach to any people." He saw civilization swing unfortunate 
members of the human family from the scaffold, in utter viola- 
tion of all principles of humanity, and protested against the bar- 
barity of a law, which neither reason nor enlightened justice sanc- 
tioned. He saw the national government constantly indulging in 
extravagance, and imposing upon the people unwise legislation, 
and he plead for economy, and aided to secure the exemption of 
thousands of homesteads for those who were constantly seeking 
homes in the territorial domain of the country. 

In short, he saw every department of civilization straggling 



492 HORACE GREELEY 

under a heavy load of error, or deformed by a false organization 
of society. He spared no time nor opportunity to condemn the 
"wrong, and command the right. States, nations, churches, insti- 
tutions and individuals were the same to him, and received alike 
the same scathing criticism for error or criminality, and the same 
hearty support and encouragement for well doing. 

Early in his editorial career, Mr. Greeley's plain frank man- 
ner of expressing himself upon public questions called out an at- 
tack from one Dr. Potts, a minister who took exceptions to some 
views expressed in the Tribune. But the doctor was at once 
met with a severe and pointed answer, as will be seen by the 
following remarks : 

RELIGION AND JOURNALISM. 

Rev. Dr. Potts, the able and popular pastor of the Ninth street 
Presbyterian Church, University-place, preached on thanksgiving 
a serman on " the Duties of a Christian Citizen," which we find 
summarily reported in the last Courier and Enqirer, whose writ- 
ing editor is a member of said church. The sermon appears to 
have been well worth reporting — cogent, fearless and pertinent. 
Most of its positions meet our hearty approbation ; while on some 
points we think the preacher could have better subserved the 
cause of Christianity, to say nothing of humanity, had he been 
more correctly informed. For instance, the Rev. Dr. is reported 
as saying : 

It is especially worthy of notice that the various pernicious nos- 
trums which have been invented for the cure of social evils — the 
various schemes of " reform," one proposing to abolish the pen- 
alty of death for murder ; another to tell by a man's skull whether 
he be a criminal or a lunatic, another to revolutionize the domestic 
system, and turn society into a system of joint stock companies, 
by which all the cooking, washing, nursing, schooling, scavenger 
work, etc., may be done by labor-saving plans, the effect of which 
will inevitably be to break up the present relations of the family 
order — all these and other similar reforms are aiming to insinuate 
themselves into the public mind partly through the medium of 
factitious tales. 

It cannot be doubted that they are doing the work they propose, 
and at least loosening the faith of many in the established order of 
things. And that this is so, is apparent from the fact, that even 



AS A REFORMER. 493 

some of the public prints called respectable, feel strong enough in 
the patronage they receive, boldly to avow these disorganized and 
demoralized schemes. 

Now, in asking the duty of a Christian citizen in relation to 
these various influences, all going toward the formation of the 
public mind, in other words, to the education of the people, can 
there be any doubt that it lies, first, in doing everything he can to 
expose the character and denounce the influence of all such publi- 
cations as thus strike at public virtue and good order — in express- 
ing plainly his opinion of the misconduct of those who usher them 
to the light, and give them currency by publishing them — in with- 
drawing promptly his patronage in every way from the political 
presses which endorse them ? For one, said Dr. Potts, I should 
like to know upon what principle any sober-minded man, much 
more a professed Christian, can assist in any way any press which 
zealously advocate the principles of Agrarianism, Anti-Rentism 
and Fourierism, to say nothing of a variety of other isms. 

Now we think the Dr. is unfortunate in the use of terms ; "Agrai-- 
ianism" is a long and hard word. We do not happen now to know 
a single person who is strictly an "Agrarian ;" but the term seems 
to us ill-chosen by one who professes to reverence and follow such 
messengers of divine truth as Moses and Jesus. The world has 
never seen another Lawgiver so thoroughly, consistently "Agrar- 
ian" as he who, under God, led the children of Israel out of Egypt 
— or should we not rather say He who selected and guided that 
leader ? 

Dr. Potts exhorts all his hearers to withdraw promptly their 
patronage from the Tribune, for though he speaks of "political 
presses" (and his denunciation in terms applies to the Courier and 
Enquirer, since it publishes our side of the discussion,) he mani- 
festly aims at the press, and none other. Now it is quite probable 
that we have some readers among the pew-polders of a church so 
wealthy and fashionable as the Dr.s, thotigh few, we presume, 
among divines as well salaried as he is. We will only ask those 
of our patrons who may obey his command to read for their next 
scripture lesson, the XXVth chapter of Leviticus, and reflect upon 
it for an hour or so. "We ai'e very sure they will find the exercise 
a profitable one, in a sense higher than they will have anticipated. 
Having then stopped the Tribune, they will meditate at lei- 
sure on the abhorrence and execration with which one of the 
Hebrew Prophets must have regarded any kind of an Agrarian or 
anti-Renter, that is, one opposed to perpetuating and extending 
the relation of landlord and tenant over the whole arable surface 



194 HORACE GREELEY 

of the earth. Perhaps the contemplation of a few more passages 
of sacred writ may not be unprofitable in a moral sense — for ex- 
ample : 

"Wo unto them that join (add) house to house, that lay field to 
field that there be no place, that they be placed alone in the midst 
of the earth." — Isaiah, v, 8. 

" One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatever thou hast, 
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and 
come, take up the cross, and follow me : and Jesus looked 
round about, and saith unto his disciples : How hardly shall they 
that have riches enter into the kingdom of God ? " — Mark 
x, 21, 23. 

" And all that believed were together, and had all things com- 
mon ; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to 
ail, as every man had need." — Acts. 44, 45. 

We might cite columns of this sort from the sacred volume, 
showing a deplorable lack of doctors of divinity in ancient times, 
to be employed at $3,500 a year in denouncing in sumptuous, pew- 
guarded edifices, costing $75,000 each, all who should be guilty of 
" loosening the faith of many in the established order of things.'" 
Alas for their spiritual blindness ; the ancient prophets — God's 
prophets — appear to have had slight faith in or reverence for that 
" established order " themselves : their schemes appear to have 
been regarded as exceedingly " disorganized " and hostile to 
"good order" by the spiritual rulers of the people in those days. 

That Dr. Potts, pursuing (Ave trust) the career most congenial to 
his feelings, surrounded by every comfort and luxury, enjoying 
the best society, and enabled to support and educate his children 
to the height of his desires, should be inclined to reprobate all 
" nostrums " for the cure of social evils, and sneer at " labor-sav- 
ing plans" of cooking, washing, schooling, etc., is rather deplora- 
ble than surprising. Were he some poor day-laborer, subsisting 
his family and paying rent on the dollar a day he could get when 
the weather permitted, and some employer's necessity or caprice 
gave him a chance to earn it, we believe he would view the sub- 
ject differently. 

As to the spirit which can denounce by wholesale all who labor, 
in behalf of a Social Reform, in defiance of general oblogny, 
rooted prejudice, and necessarily serious personal sacrifices, as 
enemies of Christianity and good morals, and call upon the public 
to starve them into silence, does it not merit the rebuke and loath- 
ing of every generous mind? 



AS A REFORMER. 495 

Heaven aid us to imitate, though afar off, that divinest charity 
•which could say for its persecutors arid murderers : "Father, for- 
give them, for they know not what they do ! " 

We rejoice that the Christian pulpit is henceforth to he devoted 
in some measure to a censorship on the public press. 

There is no duty more imperatively incumbent upon it, in view 
of the immense power which the press exerts, for good or evil, 
over the destenies of mankind. So far from regarding such cen- 
sorships as impertinent or presumptuous, we welcome it with 
gratification. Had the pulpit hitherto paid becoming attention to 
the character and influences of the press, we are sure that the re- 
sult would have been highly beneficial to both, and that some of 
the grosser misapprehensions evinced in the sermon we are now 
considering, would ere this have been dissipated. 

We are profoundly conscious that the moral tone and bearing of 
the press fall very far beneath their true standard, and that it too 
often panders to popular appetites and prejudices, when it should 
rather withstand and labor to correct them. We, for example, re- 
member having wasted many precious columns of this paper, 
whereby great good might have been done, in the publication of a 
controversy on the question, " Can there be a church without a 
bishop ? " — a controversy unprofitable in its subject, verbose and 
pointless in its logic, and disgraceful to our common Christianity 
in its exhibitions of uncharitable temper and gladiatorial tactics. 
The Eev. Dr. Potts may also remember that controversy. We 
ask the pulpit to strengthen our own fallible resolution never to 
be tempted by any hope of pecuniary profit, (pretty sure to be de- 
lusive, as it ought,) into meddling with such another discreditable 
performance. We do not find, in the Courier's report of this ser- 
mon, any censures upon that very large and popularly respectable 
class of journals which regularly hire out their columns, editorial 
and advertising, for the enticement of their readers to visit grog- 
geries, theatres, horse-races, as we sometimes have thoughtlessly 
done, but hope never, unless through deplored inadvertence, to do 
again. The difficulty of entirely resisting all temptations to these 
lucrative vices is so great, and the temptations themselves so in- 
cessant, while the moral mischief thence accruing is so vast and 
palpable, that we can hardly think the Kev. Dr. slurred over the 
point, while we can very well imagine that his respected disciple 
and reporter did so. At this moment, when the great battle of 
temperance against liquid poison and its horrible sorceries is con- 
vulsing our State, and its issue trembles in the balance, it seems 
truly incredible that a doctor of divinity, lecturing on the iniqui- 



496 nORACE GREELEY 

ties of the press, can have altogether overlooked this topic. Can- 
not the Courier from its reporter's notes supply the omission? 

Another D. D. during the early part of '61, when the country 
"was on the eve of a great struggle between freedom and slav- 
ery, preached in defense of slavery, and endeavored to prove 
from the Bible the divine right to hold human beings in bondage. 
Mr. Greeley replied to him in the Tribune of January the 7th, 
1861 , in the following manner : 

DR. EAPHALL'S BIBLE. 

The Rev. Dr. Raphall is a burning and shining light in our New 
York Israel. As Senator Wade said of his co-religionist, Judah 
P. Benjamin, he is " an Israelite with Egyptian principles." 
On the President's fast-day, he preached a sermon in the Greene 
street Synagogue, wherein he demonstrated, to his own satisfac- 
tion, that human slavery is sanctioned by divine law. Now, in so 
far as the Rev. Dr. assumed to quote, and to expound the law of 
Moses, we let him pass, and proceed to the other branch of the 
subject. "We quote from a report of his discourse, as follows : 

"But, as that Rev. gentleman [Henry Ward Beecher] takes a 
lead among those who most loudly and most vehemently denounce 
slaveholding as a sin, I wished to convince myself whether he 
had any scripture warranty for so doing; and whether such de- 
nunciation was one of those ' requirements for moral instruction,' 
advanced by the New Testament. I have accordingly examined 
the various books of Christian scripture, and find that they afford 
the reverend gentleman and his compeers no authority whatever 
for his and their declamations. The New Testament nowhere, di- 
rectly or indirectly, condemns slaveholding— which indeed is 
proved by the universal practice of all Christian nations during 
many centuries." 

Dr. Raphall is an educated and reverent expounder of the law, 
given by Moses, and we have therefore not seen fit to put our au- 
thority against his in the interpretation of that law. But, when he 
comes to the New Testament, we feel that we have him at a de- 
cided disadvantage. We have been studying that book a good 
many years, receiving it as a message from on high ; while he 
deems it an imposture, of no divine authority, and appears to 
have only casually looked it through to see whether it does or 
does not sustain slavery. He says " the New Testament nowhere, 
directly or indirectly, condemns slaveholding ; " we say it does, 
especially in this passage, which is the center and sun of the whole 
system of Christianity : 



AS A REFORMER. 497 

"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do 

TO YOU, DO YE EVEN SO TO THEM." [Matt. VlL, 12. 

Jesus of Nazareth, who lays down this broad, comprehensive, 
universal rule of human conduct, adds " for this is the Law and 
the Prophets," and we believe he had a clearer, deeper, truer com- 
prehension of their spirit than has Mr. Raphall ; yet we will not 
dispute with the Rev. Doctor on that point. But that the Author 
and Finisher of the christian faith intended to lay down as abso- 
lute and without exception the rule that we must never, under 
any circumstances, do to another what we would not have that 
other, if our positions were reversed, do to us, the universal, 
emphatic accord of christian commentators for nearly twenty cen- 
turies, has affirmed ; and the context renders it certain that Christ 
meant just this, and nothing else. 

We might quote other passages to the same effect, particularly 
that concerning " a certain man " who " went down to Jericho " 
and " fell among thieves," and, being by them " stripped and 
wounded, and left for dead," was looked upon and left to get on 
as he might by "a priest," and "a Levite," who, we judge by cer- 
tain characteristics, to have both been ancestors of the Rev. Dr. 
Raphall. But Christ explicitly condemned their heartless con- 
duct, commending that of the good Samaritan, who, seeing a fel- 
low creature in distress, stopped not to consider that he was of a 
detested race and lineage, but flew to his relief, bound up his 
wounds, and ministered to his every need. He who does not feel 
that his narrative is aimed directly at such religionists as Dr. Rap- 
hall, may be a very good Jew (we don't believe he is, but the Dr. 
is better authority for that than we are,) but he is certainly the 
poorest sort of christian. 

Can any one need to be shown that Christ's Golden Rule is ut- 
terly, irreconcilably hostile to slavery ? Suppose a son or daugh- 
ter of the Rev. Dr. Raphall were this day a slave in Dahomey, 
would he doubt its application to the case ? And if that rule con- 
demn the enslavement of a Jew by a negro, just as clearly does it 
condemn the enslavement of a negro by a Jew. No Hebraist pre- 
tends that the slavery allowed by Moses, (" for the hardness of your 
hearts,") was the slavery of negroes exclusively, or was confined to 
any particular race or color. The "heathen round about," the Is- 
raelites, when the law was given by Moses, were not negroes, 
nor anything like negroes, but Arabs and Phoenicians, scarcely dis- 
tinguishable by physical or mental characteristics from the Hebrews 
themselves. 
Christ was born into a world full of slavery, as Dr. Raphall as- 



498 HORACE GREELEY 

serts. Where is that slavery now ? Vanished — melted away in the 
light of christian equity, the fire of Christian love. On Sunday 
next, the very last christian nation in Europe that held slaves, will 
cease to hold them, leaving Mohammedan Turkey the only slave- 
holding country in the most enlightened and christian quarter of 
the globe. The Catholic church has formally declared that slavery 
was overthrown by Christianity, which no one who studies history 
can doubt. Christianity is gradually rooting out slavery in Asia 
and America, and fighting it even in Africa. In the presence of 
these facts, what weight is due to the circumstance that Christ 
never specially condemned slavery? "By their fruits ye shall 
know them." 

It is a sad, deplorable fact, that slavery unfits men for freedom. 
The slave of yesterday is the hardest master to-day, and the Irish 
kerne, trampled underfoot for twenty generations, make just about 
the meanest doughfaces in America. No people on earth have 
been more oppressed, robbed, trodden down and persecuted, than 
the Jews; hence, we generally look to them to furnish apologists 
and pettifoggers for slavery. We rejoice in the knowledge, how- 
ever, that only a part of them are thus perverted, but that thou- 
sands of the children of Abraham, purified and made wiser by suf- 
fering, are among the most faithful and consistent upholders of the 
inalienable Rights of Man. 

When a blind theology taught that slavery was right, or gave 
approval to any vicious habits of men, or thought to turn the cur- 
rent of human progress through a " straight and narrow way," 
in which the reason or freedom of man could not go, Mr. Gree- 
ley spared no opportunity to make war upon such a perversion 
of religious teachings. In fact, no man has done so much on the 
American continent, against ignorant conservatism, and in favor 
of the onward progress of ideas and principles in this country, as 
Horace Greeley. He moved forward with rapidity to a position 
in advance of Noah Webster, Lyman Beecher, Horace Mann and 
Fowler, and joined with a new and more advanced school of pro- 
gressive minds ; still holding to the truth of the past, and pushing 
forward into new fields of thought and progress, with a boldness 
and an earnestness unknown to any of his predecessors, in the 
field of reform. Not only was he bold and earnest, but the scope 
of his work was greater than ever before prosecuted by any man. 



AS A REFORMER. 499 

It is true he has constantly had at his command the most in- 
fluential and powerful journal in the nation, through which he 
could send forth, rapidly succeeding volleys of new thoughts, fresh 
as the breeze, to the souls of men and women, yet powerful as the 
storm. Millions of newspapers were annually going forth over 
the land, carrying his thoughts, and faith, and knowledge, to ev- 
ery quarter of the country, heralding to the people of a nation, 
with the rising sun, reform for the individual, reform for the 
church, reform for society, reform for the State, and reform for 
the nation. And while his press was constantly thundering from 
day to day against error and proclaiming truth, Mr. Greeley add- 
ed to its strength by going out over the land, for a brief season, 
almost every year, for the last quarter of a century, and lecturing to 
the people upon various subjects of culture and reform. Again, he 
has added to his influence and importance, his various volumes, tend- 
ing to the same great end of his life — a desire to elevate and render 
more happy his fellows. When we considered, as a whole, and 
comprehend and measure the labors of his life for the past forty 
years ; the many bold and earnest battles he has fought with a 
high purpose, and an unselfish aim, what man has the country 
produced, who has done so well ; what soul has been so true. 



CHAPTER X. 

HORACE GREELEY A SELF-MADE MAN. 

^s>^ — 

^lyERHAPS Americans have heard more about self-made men 
w|u/than any other people ; their form of government seems to be 
more adapted to such a kind of human growth. Never be- 
fore has the spirit of Democracy pervaded the community, state or 
nation, with such general and equalizing influence as is to be 
found in America. 

Despots, tyrants, kings, emperors, dynasties, royal lines, po- 
tentates, princes, dukes and counts, are not indigenous to Amer- 
ican soil ; they are unknown to American laws. The American peo- 
ple are a Democratic people, and they only recognize those dis- 
tinctions among men which God has made. And they only honor 
that elevation of rank which consists of the nobility of manhood 
and womanhood. 

In this land of ours, the opportunity for greatness is the same 
to all ; and even so true is the divine purpose, in the immutable 
tendency of all things, that the greater opportunity for success 
and greatness, is more often afforded to the true child of the log 
cabin and the workshop, than to the sons and daughters of those 
who seek, by false forms and conventionalities, to render them- 
selves the favored of communities and states. The accident of 
wealth does not make the true nobility in this great land ; nor 
does it supply the greatest statesmen to the country, nor the great- 
est moral heroes to the human race. On the other hand, the 
history of the country is made rich with the illustrious deeds of 
self-made men and women, true sons and daughters of God, who 
have come up from obscurity, tried and trained through orphanage 
and poverty, to the highest places of honor and trust in the con- 
fidence and gift of the American people. 



502 HORACE GREELEY 

That Horace Greeley is one of the highest type, and one of 
the most worthy examples of self-made men which our country 
has produced, is a fact beyond all contradiction. Born in the 
bleak and sterile regions of New Hampshire, of humble parents, 
who shared largely the poverty and vicissitudes, commom to the 
earlier farmers of New England, Horace Greeley came forth 
into the world a bright herald of a rising, nobler manhood, a true 
nobility, to whose honored ranks the humblest child in the village 
and the city, in the prairie or in the forest home, can attain, by 
its own individual effort, to dare to be itself, and dare to achieve 
the positions and honors of a true and free man. 

It is common to hear Franklin cited as the greatest of all self- 
made men this country has produced. But it is questionable 
whether Horace Greeley is not in the main, the equal, if not the 
superior of Franklin. Franklin's head measured larger than 
Horace Greeley's, but his organic quality and mental tempera- 
ment was not equal to Mr. Greeley's. Franklin embodied more 
of the material nature of man, and Greeley more of the spirit- 
ual. Franklin wrote more in reference to material things, Gree- 
ley more in reference to humanity, and the mental and moral 
improvement of the human race. In practical wisdom, they are 
alike eminent ; and while it may be said that Franklin lived in an age 
affording less advantages, it can be said that Greeley lives when 
there is more competition in the struggle for the ascendency, and 
greater difficulty to contend against wealth. But, be the difference 
between these two great representative examples of our race and 
nation, as it may, I leave the closer analysis of character and 
comparison, to some future Plutarch, who will yet weigh the great 
men of my country. Then will Franklin and Greeley stand side 
by side, in history and in the confidence of the people, the Solon 
and Publicola of the American Republic. 

Young men of America ! the two truest and greatest examples 
I of self-made men which your country has produced, are Benjamin 
Franklin and Horace Greeley. Study them well ; strive to im- 
itate and equal their great lives. Heed not the thoughtless, the 
bigoted and envious, who endeavor to divert you from a study of 



A SELF-MADE MAN. 503 

these men. Their lives, their characters, and their works, will 
ever stand untarnished in your country's history, fit examples and 
true teachers for the millions of young men of America, to study 
and to follow. 



CHAPTEK XL 

HORACE GREELEY IN THE SOUTH. 




j^BOUT the 10th of May Mr. Greeley left New York to 
mTw enter on his Southern tour. He had received the most 
pressing invitations from influential residents of Texas to 
visit that State, and had accepted one to deliver an address at the 
State Fair held annually at Houston. He was accompanied by two 
friends — Mr. Charles Storrs and General Merritt of Potsdam — the 
one an eminent New York merchant ; the other a gallant soldier 
who had been Naval Officer of the Port of New York. He arrived 
in Louisville on the 13th, and after a few hours' stay repaired to the 
Nashville depot, and recommenced his journey to New Orleans. He 
had a delay often hours at Canton, during which he drove about in 
the neighborhood. During the journey he conversed with many 
persons regarding the agricultural interests of the South, and occa- 
sionally evinced his recollections of the days of Harry Clay by allu- 
sions to the political associations of different localities. A journalist, 
writing for a Cincinnati paper, observed at the time of Mr. Gree- 
ley's conversational powers : — "Emerson used to give conversations 
devoted to poetry and sublimated theory; Bronson Alcott is still in 
the fields with conversations on social problems; but I doubt if any 
American can equal Greeley in giving an extemporaneous political 
conversation. His memory is a vast arsenal of useful and telling 
tacts; his language is vigorous, and unusually precise in shades of 
meaning; his voice is strong, flexible, and pleasing in quality. He is 
an excellent listener, never interrupting those who talk to him, and 
giving serious ideas his close attention. His answers and opinions 
are announced without the least hesitation. He has such confidence 
in his power to reason in straight lines that he thinks aloud. The 



HORACE GREELEY IN THE SOUTH. 505 

thought flashes into his brain, and he flashes it out again without 
repressing it for cautious analysis. He sat there in the waiting- 
room, erect, silver-haired, robust and genial, his themes glancing 
from Pacific railroads to grass roots, and commanding at all times 
a deep interest in his off-hand auditory." 

Mr. Greeley made many inquiries touching the agricultural 
and manufacturing prospects of the different sections through 
which he passed ; evinced a desire to see the colored race show 
thriftiness and enterprise by owning and cultivating land; and 
listened with sympathy to many tales of the ravages of war which 
were told him. 

A crevasse having put the railroad out of repair below Manchac 
— thirty-seven miles north of New Orleans — he was obliged to take 
the steam-boat from Manchac to New Orleans. He was greeted 
at the pier in the Crescent City by General Herron, and one 
of the owners of the New Orleans Times, and proceeded to tiie , 
St. Charles Hotel, whose hospitable proprietor had placed a suite of 
rooms at the disposal of the tourists. In the evening a number 
of eminent citizens called on Mr. Greeley and welcomed him 
to the Sunny South. Accompanied by his • fellow-travelers he 
visited the French Opera House, and expressed himself pleased 
with the performance. Next day Mr. Greeley went down the 
coast on the steamship Rio Grande to visit the Magnolia plantation. 
Dr. Noyes, the promoter of the Mexican Gulf Ship Canal, who, with 
many other prominent citizens, was on board, explained to Mr. 
Greeley the objects and prospects of that enterprise. Arrived 
at the plantation, Mr. Greeley went first to examine the working 
of a steam-plow, an invention in which he has always taken an 
enthusiastic interest, believing that by means of steam-power the 
soil will yet be pulverized deeper and more effectively and at less 
cost than by the present slow and imperfect means. After witness- 
ing the application of steam in plowing under different circum- 
stances, he visited the sugar-house— one of the largest in the State 
— and examined the machinery used in the manufacture of sugar. 
He next repaired to the residence of Mr. Effingham Lawrence, 
the proprietor, where he partook of lunch, and where an interesting 



506 HORACE GREELEY 

discussion was maintained upon the progress of agi'iculture. His 
visit to the plantation caused a great stir among the colored 
laborers, and they evinced much anxiety to see one of whom they 
had heard so much. " Mary Ann," said Mr. Lawrence, as the visi- 
tors entered the house, "this is Mr. Horace Greeley, who did 
more to secure your freedom than any man living. Mr. Greeley 
is the most distinguished gentleman in the country, and we expect 
you to do your best for him." It is needless to say that Mary Ann 
did do her best for the entertainment of the visitors, and that 
the colored servants were quite demonstrative in their attentions. 

The next day Mr. Greeley prepared to resume his journey for 
Texas. After receiving a number of friends at the St. Charles, he 
visited the Boston Club : dined with friends at Victor's : and in the 
evening met a host of admirers at the American Union Club Room. 
He was introduced by Recorder Houghton, and delivered a brief 
speech, in which he observed in substance that he had been already 
warned that the assembly before him was not a political association, 
but a social organization, composed of the ex-soldiers of the United 
States and defenders of the Union, and hoped that in referring 
briefly to the great public questions of the day, he would not tres- 
pass on their established rule. This city, and the presence of this 
audience here, was an evidence of the indivisibility of that Union, a 
proof that a part could never be greater than the whole. Notwith- 
standing the political heresy that the Union was the creature of the 
States, the city of New Orleans and State of Louisiana told a differ- 
ent truth. They are told that this great sea-bound city, the metrop- 
olis of the South, and the territory surrounding, was wrested from 
European dominion by the blood and sweat of the American people ; 
that it was acquired originally by the money and diplomacy of the 
Union, and was designed as a refuge for the genius, and for the de- 
velopment of the resources of the American people. His political 
creed had been founded on the sent'ments of the great men the 
South gave to the Union. He knew of no one who was more to be 
believed in than George Washington, a Southern man, but a na- 
tional Southern man. Never in the history of the country had its 
administration been distinguished by greater dignity, integrity, 



IN THE SOUTH. 507 

purity or capacity. We had made no real progress in government 
since the days of Washington. Chief Justice Marshall, in the thir- 
ty-three years of his official career, tlid more to organize the gov- 
ernment, and put its theory into practice, than any living man. He 
achieved more with his pen than all the swords ever used, with the 
exception of two or three. Washington's farewell address was 
especially designed to do away with all narrow ideas of dismem- 
berment, and no document of ancient or modern times did more 
than that farewell. If those were Southern ideas, the speaker was 
a Southern man ; if they were not, he was not. It was never con- 
templated that any State, however large, should be empowered to 
nullify the tie. During his trip South, he had a conversation with 
a Mississippian, who claimed to have been a Whig, and opposed to 
disunion. However, when his State went out, he considered his 
paramount allegiance should remain with his State. This doctrine, 
the speaker declared, was never learned from the Whig party. 
When there was a war of giants in the Senate, and Hayne, of South 
Carolina, talked of nullification and State rights, Daniel Webster 
answered it with a crushing denunciation that resounded through- 
out the whole country, and rejoiced the hearts of Southern men as 
well as Northern men. When at a later day South Carolina at- 
tempted to carry out that doctrine, Andrew Jackson, another 
Southern man, answered in a masterly proclamation, taking even 
stronger grounds than Mr. Webster. Edward Livingston, his Secre- 
tary of State, and a native of Louisiana, very probably wrote that 
proclamation. If that was not Southern doctrine, then George 
Washington, John Marshall, Andrew Jackson and Edward Living- 
ston were not Southern men. As for himself, though born in New 
Hampshire, and a resident of New York for over forty years, he 
believed in the whole country. 

Mr. Greeley's visit was the subject of much comment in the 
press, and many cordial tributes were paid him by his co-workers 
in journalism. The New Orleans Price Current observed : " There 
is one topic upon which Mr. Geeeley is entitled to the unreserved 
approval of all who live by land and labor. He has been one of 
the most consistent advocates of agricultural improvement." Tho 



508 HORACE GREELEY 

New Orleans Picayune declared itself glad " that so eminent a rep- 
resentative man as Horace Greeley " had come among the people 
of the South, while the New Orleans Times eaid : "His success and 
prominence as a journalist entitle him to high consideration from 
the members of the press here and elsewhere, while his sincerity 
and conscientious devotion to duty should secure for him the re- 
sj)ect, if not the confidence, of the public generally." 

These sentiments were in accord with those of the citizens of 
New Orleans, who all evinced an earnest desire to have Mr. 
Greeley's visit rendei'ed as interesting and agreeable as possible. 

After an agreeable journey from New Orleans Mr. Greeley 
arrived in Galveston, and was received by the Mayor, the Hon. 
Elias Smith, and other gentlemen, who accompanied him to the 
Exchange Hotel, where a suite of rooms had been prepared for his 
reception. He was visited by a large number of distinguished cit- 
izens, and attended a dinner given in his honor in the evening, at 
which, in response to a complimentary toast, he expi-essed the wish 
that the whole American people would turn their attention to the 
restoration of peace, order, and prosperity. Again in the evening, 
in another address, in which, speaking of the material interests of 
the State, he showed the reason why the staple products of Texas 
were worth less to the producers than were those of any other 
State to its producers. He explained that hitherto the Gulf had 
been the end of commerce, but that, with an Isthmus ship-canal, 
Texas would be in the middle and not at the end of the commercial 
chain. He referred to the liberality of Texas, in subsidizing the 
Texas Pacific, from which he expected so much, and predicted a 
glowing future for Texas. In ten years her population will be 
quadrupled, and her material wealth more than quadrupled ; her 
ports filled with the shipping of all nations, and her prosperity un- 
paralleled in the history of States. He was told of one steam-plow 
being in Texas, and believed that in ten years there would bo a 
thousand. 

At the reception Major Cave, as chairman of a committee, formally 
welcomed him on the part of the Agricultural, Mechanical, and 
Blood-Stock Association of Texas, observing: "This committee 



IN THE SOUTH. 509 

will therefore only express the hope that you, whose life has been 
devoted to the advancement and elevation of American labor, 
American agriculture, and American manufactures, will see in the 
expanse of fertile plain and valley, wide forests and extent of moun- 
tain, here unproductive, so broad a field for the development of 
these interests that you will believe our people are justified in their 
efforts to make Texas the Empire State of the South ; and that you 
will return to your home convinced that the future glory of our 
common country will at least not be dimmed by the progress in 
Texas." 

After a brief stay in Galveston Mr. Greeley proceeded to Hous- 
ton, where he met with a very enthusiastic reception from thousands 
assembled at the State Fair. On the 23d — the second day of the 
Fair — he delivered his promised address, entitled " Suggestions to 
Farmers." This admirable essay was listened to with profound 
attention, and was warmly appreciated. Nearly every agricultural 
paper in the Union reprinted it, so that its homely truths and wise 
counsel must have been read by millions of our people. On the 22d 
Mr. Greeley, accepting the invitation of the Hon. A. Groesbeck, 
went, accompanied by many eminent citizens, in a special train to 
Hearne — one hundred and twenty miles from Houston — and thus 
saw a fair portion of the grand, measureless plains of Texas. 

The Legislature passed a joint resolution authorizing the Governor 
of Texas to invite Mr. Greeley to Austin — the State Capital — but 
he was unable to accept it, and on the 29th of May returned to 
Galveston, where he was greeted with a popular reception to which 
he responded, and in the course of his speech said : — 

" I feel we are at the commencement of a new era. Since I have 
been in Texas I have repeatedly heard complaints that the people 
of the North habitually misrepresented the feeling and acts of the 
Southern people — at least, that portion of them that does not sym- 
pathize with those who at present control the Government ; that 
they were generally and systematically belied ; and that the North- 
ern people think the Texans a band of outlaws and desperadoes. 
Such is not my understanding of Northern opinion. In the early 
history of the State, doubtless, a number of men were attracted 



510 HORACE GREELEY 

hither who could be very well spared at home, and were not par- 
ticularly welcome here or elsewhere. Soon after the close of the 
war complaints were made and believed that the colored people 
sometimes suffered from their late masters' violence; but we have 
heard nothing of this for two or three years. I believe, at this day, 
not so much violence occurs in Texas as in New York city ; cer- 
tainly there is not nearly so much said about it. With but equal 
population in Texas as in New York, there are more desperadoes 
in that city than in Texas, and it is harder work to manage them. 
The North does not think Texas the land of the Bowie knife and 
pistol. The proof that Texas is in good repute is shown by the 
steady increase in population. From other States there is a great 
desire to emigrate. In this, perhaps, Texas is a single exception, 
without it may be Oregon. Texas alone is rapidly gaining ground. 
Other States may increase, because losses are replaced by larger 
gains, but Texas does not lose any, one of the reasons for which is 
that the Northern press are just to Texas, and I intend to be just 
to her. All the letters I shall write from here, and all I shall write 
about her after I leave, will show that such will be my representa- 
tions, for I can testify that property and life are safe, and are pro- 
tected in Texas. 

" While the Southern people complain that the North does not 
understand and misrepresents them, it may also be said they in 
turn do not understand the Northern people. This is all wrong 
and unfortunate both ways. They should, if possible, be allied. I 
hope and believe they will." 

He now bade farewell to the Lone Star State and returned to 
New York by way of New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Memphis. 

During his journey he wrote several letters for the Tribune which 
were replete with valuable information, and evinced the comprehen- 
sive sagacity of a statesman with the ardent pride of an American 
citizen proud of the greatness of his country and anxious to see en- 
during fraternity exist among all her people. 

Soon after his return to New York Mr. Greeley was welcomed 
at the Lincoln Club-Rooms, in Union Square, by a large number 
of friends who were assembled under the auspices of the Union 



IN THE SOUTH. 511 

Republican General Committee, and who severally congratulated 
him upon his safe return from his journey to the far South-West, and 
through the Lower Mississippi Valley. The rooms were profusely 
decorated with flags and flowers, and tables well provided with re- 
freshments were set. A large oil-painting of Mr. Greeley occupied 
a conspicuous place in the main room, and in the others were va- 
rious photographs and lithographs of him. A plaster bust of Mr. 
Greeley, cast some twenty years ago, also attracted much attention. 
On the balcony outside was placed a large bust of Lincoln, wreathed 
in bunting. In the street, in front of the Club-Rooms, a platform 
was erected for speaking, and around it were assembled, by 8 
o'clock, many thousand people. Mr. Enoch L. Fancher having made 
a brief address, in which he said, " On behalf of the Committee 
— your personal and political friends — you are tendered this compli- 
ment, which you see, in this shape — a spontaneous gathering of the 
people of this city ; and we welcome you to our circle — the society 
you have so long adorned — and to the fervent friendship of our 
hearts." 

Mr. Greeley responded in one of his ablest political speeches, 
and dealt with the current questions of the hour. He spoke mainly 
of the South and the national interests involved, and in the course 
of his remarks regarding the views he had expressed in the South 
he said : — 

" Visiting the little city of Columbus, Texas — the only place I did 
visit on the western side of the Colorado river — I was, about this 
time of night, while sitting in my hotel, waited upon by a German 
deputation, who asked me to come over to their club-room and talk 
to them a little while, they being all loyal Union men. Well, I 
went over. They had a hastily-assembled crowd, and I spoke for 
half an hour, perhaps, in vindication and explanation of the late 
great struggles for unity in this country and for unity in Germany ; 
for the defense and protection of these two great nations in their 
rights of territory and of nationality. I argued, as well as I could, 
that, though some men honestly believe that our struggle and the 
triumph therein of the National cause will tend to despotism on this 
continent, and that some so hold with regard to the German triumph 



512 IIOEACE GKEELEY 

in their great struggle, T, on the contrary, believe that the ultimate 
tendency and result of these two great consummations will be the 
promotion and advancement of liberal ideas and institutions alike 
in the Old World and the New. 

" Well, gentlemen, as I was leaving Texas, a pressing invitation 
was given me by the Republicans of Galveston to make a speech 
to them on the last night I spent in their State; and I acceded 
to their request. I tried before them to vindicate the North 
against the charges made against her in the South, and to prove 
that the North did not make war on the South (as too many 
Southern people still believe she did). I tried to show them that 
the war was commenced in the South, by the South — nay, in Texas 
itself — by capturing, through treachery, the United Stales Army, 
and turning its arms and munitions against the flag and against 
the integrity of our country ; and that, all the way through, we 
stood virtually on the defensive, against what seemed to me a most 
indefensible and wanton aggression. I said what I could to vindi- 
cate the North from the reproach of malignity — of wishing to 
oppress or plunder or cripple the South ; and tried to make my 
Southern countrymen believe that we were all Americans, and all 
together interested in and striving for the prosperity and the 
growth of our whole widely-extended country. Such was my 
theme at Galveston." 

Perhaps the most effective part of his address was that wherein 
he described the " thieving carpet-baggers " in the South. After 
paying a just tribute to the many noble men and women of North- 
ern birth in the South he said: — 

"Well, gentlemen, the thieving carpet-baggers are a mournful 
fact ; they do exist there, and I have seen them. They are fellows 
Who crawled down South in the track of our armies, generally at a 
very safe distance in the rear ; some of them on sutlers' wagons ; 
some bearing cotton permits ; some of them looking sharply to see 
what might turn up ; and they remain there. They at once ingra- 
tiated themselves with the Blacks, simple, credulous, ignorant men, 
very glad to welcome and to follow any Whites who professed to be 
the champions of their rights. Some of them got elected Senators, 



m THE SOUTH. 513 

others Representatives, some Sheriffs, some Judges, and so on. 
And there they stand, right in the public eye, stealing and plunder 1 
ing, many of them with both arms around negroes, and their hands 
in their rear pockets, seeing if they cannot pick a paltry dollar 
out of them ; and the public looks at them, does not regard the 
honest Northern men, but calls every ' carpet-bagger ' a thief, which 
is not the truth by a good deal. But these fellows — many of them 
long-faced, and with eyes rolled up — are greatly concerned for the 
education of the Blacks, and for the salvation of their souls. 
[Great laughter.] ' Let us pray,' they say ; but they spell pray 
with an ' e,' and, thus spelled, they obey the apostolic injunction 
to " pray without ceasing." 

" Fellow-citizens, the time has been, and still is, when it was peril- 
ous to be known as a Republican or an Abolitionist in the South ; 
but it never called the blush of shame to any man's cheek to be so 
called, until these thieving carpet-baggers went there — never ! 
[Applause.] They got into the Legislatures ; they went to issuing 
State-bonds ; they pretended to use them in aid of railroads and 
other improvements. But the improvements were not made, and 
the bonds stuck in the issuers' pockets. That is the pity of it. 

" ' Well,' some say, ' you have just such thieves at the North.' 
Yes, we have — too many of them ! [Applause.] But the South 
was already impoverished — was bankrupt — without money, without 
thrift,* almost without food; and these fellows went there robbing 
and swindling when there was very little to steal, and taking the 
last ten-cent shin-plaster off of dead men's eyes. They were recog- 
nized by the late aristocracy not merely as thieves but as enemies. 
Says Byron's Greek minstrel — 

" ' A tyrant — but our masters then 
Were still at least our countrymen. 

" Thus we regard the men who annually rob us at Albany, at 
Trenton, and at Harrisburg. They do not carry their plunder out 
of the State when they get any. These fellows do ! The South 
was not merely beaten in the late contest ; she was profoundly 
astonished by the result. Her people have not fairly got over their 



514 HORACE GREELEY LN THE SOUTH. 

amazement at their defeat ; and what they see of us are these 
thieves, who represent the North to their jaundiced vision, and, re- 
presenting it, they disgrace it. They are the greatest obstacle to 
the triumph and permanent ascendency of Republican principles at 
the South, and as such I denounce them." 

The Southern tour which has been described was the theme of 
general discussion in the press and in political circles. Mr. 
Greeley had been widely spoken of for President, and the spon- 
taneous, hearty reception he had received in the South, solely from 
his merits as a statesman and patriot, confirmed the impression that 
he would be the most appropriate candidate round whom the whole 
people could rally in favor of Union, Amnesty, and Honesty. His 
presence in the South, the cordial reception he received, and the 
favorable reports he gave, made a gratifying impression in the 
North and directed attention to the great resources of the South, 
and the willingness of her people to welcome intending settlers to 
own and cultivate her fertile soil. In a long life devoted to the 
advancement of his fellow-men, with its attendant incidents, this 
journey forms one of the wisest and most beneficent of the many 
good deeds of Horace Greeley. 



CHAPTER XII. 

HENRY CLAY AND MARGARET FULLER. 




O man can write, at length, about Horace Greeley, 
without speaking of Henry Clay and Margaret Ful- 
ler. They were to him more than simple friends, 
more than countrymen. 

Circumstances of organization and life ; affinity of character 
and similarity of thought on great social and political ques- 
tions, kindled in Mr. Greeley's mind a most exalted admira- 
tion for those two distinguished persons. No other great 
man and great woman has moved upon this earth that Mr. 
Greeley so much believed in and admired. To his thinking 
Henry Clay was the greatest and purest statesman that ever 
lived — a man over whose death people and nations might 
weep, as the mother weeps over the death of her darling 
child. To his thinking Margaret Fuller was the grandest em- 
body ment of intellectual womanhood that ever walked upon 
the earth. 

Organized as Mr. Greeley is, with a large endowment of 
filial love, and with a high sense of honor to temper and ele- 
vate his character, he is in the truest sense a " Hero "Wor- 
shiper. "Hero worship," says Carlyle, "is transcendent ad- 
miration of a great man. Hero worship, heartfelt, prostrate 
admiration. Submission, burning boundless, for the noblest 
God-like form of man." 

Such is Mr. Greeley's admiration for Henry Clay and 
Margaret Fuller, and well may the man or woman of rising 
life envy him, for his prior claim to special heroic devotion, 
for two such lofty personages among the world's people. 



516 HENRY CLAY AND 

Mr. Greeley has written many tilings about each of those 
distinguished personages which the reader will peruse with 
great satisfaction. 

HENRY CLAY. 

The strong friendship existing between Mr. Clay and Mr. 
Greeley, may be inferred from the following remarks of the 
latter, giving the last interview that occurred between them. 
Mr. Greeley went to Washington, at the opening of the second 
session of the XXXII Congress, which had not convened long 
before the death of Mr. Clay. While in Washington, Mr. 
Greeley writes in one of the closing pages of Mr. Sargeant's 
Life of Clay, that — 

" Learning from others how ill and feehle he, Mr. Clay, was, I had 
not intended to call upon him, and remained two days under the 
same roof without asking permission to do so. Meantime, how- 
ever, he was casually informed of my being in Washington, and 
sent me a request to call at his room. I did so, and enjoyed a half 
hour's free and friendly conversation with him, the saddest and 
the last ! His state was even worse than I feared ; he was already 
amaciated, a prey to a severe and distressing cough, and com- 
plained of spells of difficult breathing. I think no physician could 
have judged him likely to live two months longer. Yet his mind 
was unclouded and brilliant as ever, his aspirations for his coun- 
try's welfare as ardent ; and, though all personal ambition had 
long been banished, his interests in the events and impulses of the 
day was nowise diminished. lie listened attentively to all I had 
to say of the repulsive aspects and revolting features of the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law." 

In the Tribune of April 11, 1770, Mr. Greeley published 
the following article about Henry Clay. 

The Tribune this day enters upon its XXXth year, and to-mor- 
row is the ninety-third anniversary of the birth of Henry Clay, 
the "Great Commoner," whose genius, eloquence, patriotism and 
Statesmanship, form one of the grandest illustrations of American 
institutions and irradiate one of the brightest pages in our na- 
tional history. A poor, obscure lad, with but the faintest rudi- 
ments of a common-school education, left an orphan in early 



MARGARET FULLER. 517 

youth, finding employment first in a store, then in a lawyer's 
office, he made himself an eminent advocate mainly hy the force of 
his rare natural gifts, with but slender opportunities for study. 
Early conspicuous in the political struggles of his adopted State, 
he was chosen to the Legislature while still a youth, and to the 
United States Senate when barely of the prescribed age. He filled 
successively almost every exalted station under our government, 
the Presidency excepted. Often a candidate for the House of 
Representatives, his election was never but once seriously con- 
tested. Long as was his service in the body, he was for most of 
the time its speaker ; and all men agree that he was never sur- 
passed, if equaled, as the presiding officer of that body. Repeat- 
edly returned to the Senate, he was, almost from the outset, rec- 
ognized as the foremost member of that body. As a negotiator 
of the treaty of Ghent, which closed our last war with Great Bri- 
tain, he towered above his able and honored colleagues and ob- 
tained better terms of pacification than his government had any 
right to expect. For but four years Secretary of State (under 
John Q. Adams), his dispatches are still oftener quoted as author- 
ity than those of any other director of our Foreign Affairs, though 
Jefferson and Madison were among his predecessors, while Web- 
ster, Marcy and Seward, have succeeded him. Thrice a candidate 
for the Presidency, his success was twice precluded by a division 
of those Avho were naturally his supporters ; while the final efforts 
of his friends was defeated by the old game of running a third 
candidate, who deprived him of just the votes needed to elect him, 
and by gigantic frauds at the ballot-boxes. 

Henry Clay ceased from his labors nearly twenty years ago ; but 
his influence is still potent and beneficent. He was for forty 
years our leading champion of protection to Home Industry, and 
his words of wisdom remain to guide the councils and animate the 
efforts of his countrymen. Thousands who listened to his thril- 
ling accents, his fervid appeals, remain to attest and to disseminate 
the truths which he so effectively commended to the understand- 
ings and the hearts of his countrymen. 

George D. Prentice left New England about 1830 to edit the 
leading national Republican journal in Kentucky, and wrote, soon 
afterward, a leading article entitled, "He is Not Fallen 1" in an- 
swer to one in which Mr. Clay had been characterized as " the 
Fallen Statesman." When this article reached Mr. Prentice's 
former editorial associate, John Greenleaf Whittier, he was moved 
by it to write as follows : 



518 HENRY CLAY AND 

"he is not fallen." 

Not Fallen ? No ! as well the tall 
And pillared Alleghany fall — 
As well Ohio's giant tide 

Roll backward on its mighty track, 
As he, Columbia's hope and pride, 
The slandered and the sorely tried, 

In his triumphant course turn back. 

He is not fallen ! Seek to bind 
The chainless and unbidden wind ; 
Oppose the torrent's headlong course, 
And turn aside the whirlwind's force; 
But deem not that the mighty mind 
"Will cower before the blast of hate, 

Or quail at dark and causeless ill ; 
For, though all else be desolate, 
It stoops not from its high estate ; 

A Marius 'mid the ruins still. 

He is not fallen ! Every bi*eeze 

That wanders o'er Columbia's bosom, 
From wild Penobscot's forest trees, 
From ocean shore, from inland seas, 

Or where the rich Magnolia's blossom 
Floats, snow-like, on the sultry wind, 

Is blooming onward to his ear, 
A homage to his lofty mind — 
A meed the falling never find — 

A praise which Patriots only hear. 

Star of the West ! A million eyes 

Are turning gladly unto him ; 
The shrine of old idolatries 

Before his kindling light grows dim! 
And men awake as from a dream, 

Or meteors dazzling to betray ; 
And bow before his purer beam, 

The earnest of a better day. 

All Hail ! the hour is hastening on 
"When vainly tried by slander's flame, 



MARGARET FULLER. 51^ 

Cohimbia shall behold her son 
Unharmed, without a laurel gone, 

As from the flames of Babylon 
The angel guarded triad came ! 

The slanderer shall be silent then, 

His spell shall leave the minds of men, 

And higher glory wait upon 
The Western Patriot's future fame. 

When not long afterward, Mr. Clay retired from the Senate, 
Mr. Whittier wrote as follows : 

HENRY CLAY, ON HIS RETIRING FROM THE UNITED STATES 

SENATE. 

Wail for the glorious Pleiad fled — 

Wail for the ne'er returning star 
Whose mighty music ever led 

The spheres in their high home afar I 
Bring burial weeds ? and sable plume ? 

What — lift the funeral song of wo 
Such as should o'er the loved one's tomb 

In sorrow's tenderest accents flow ? 

Ah ! Freedom's kindling minstrel, no I 
Strike ! strike with a triumphant hand 

Thy harp, and at its swelling roll 
Speak, through the borders of our land, 

The might — the beauty of that soul 
Whose genius is our guardian light 
Through sunny ray or darkling night — 
A worshipped Pharos in the sea, 

Lifting on high its fearless form 
To guide the vessel of the Free 

Safe through the fury of the storm. 

Pride of the West ! whose clarion tone 
Thrilled grandly through her forest lone, 
And waked to bounding life the shore 
Where darkness only sat before — 
How millions bent before thy shrine, 
Holding there a light divine — 
Caught on the golden chain of love, 
From its majestic source above. 



520 HENRY CLAY AND 

Star of our Hope ! when Battles call 
Have wove the soldier's glory pall — 
When blazing - o'er the troubled seas, 
Death came tumultnously on the breeze, 
And men beheld Columbia's frame, 
Scorched by the lurid levin-flame — 
Thou ! thou didst pour the patriot strain,* 
And thrilled with it each bleeding 1 vein — 
Until the star-lit banners streamed 

Like tempest-tires around the' foe, 
Whose crimson cross no longer gleamed 
In triumph where it erst had beamed — 

But sunk beneath our gallant blow. 

Sun of the Free I where Summer smiles 

Eternal o'er the clustered isles — 

Where Greece unsheathed her olden blade 

For glory in the haunted shade — 

Where Chimborazo stands sublime 

A land-mark by the sea of Time t— 

Thy name shall, as a blessing given 

For Man, oh ! never to depart, 
Peal from our gladdened Earth to Heaven — 

The warm, wild music of the heart. 

Pride of the Just ! what though dark Hate 

Her phrenzied storm around thee rolls — 
Has it not ever been the fate 

Of all this Earth's truth-speaking souls ? 
Lightnings may play upon the rock 

Whose star-kissed forehead woos the gale, 
While they escape the thunder-shock 

Who dwell within the lonely vale — 
Living unnoted 1 — not so thou, 
Chief of the fearless soul and brow ! 
Yet l6t the lightning and the storm 
Beat on thy long-devoted form ! 
The silvery day-beam bursts! and lo! 
Around thee curls the Promise-Bow. 



♦ Alluding to his efforts as Republican leader in Congress during the late war. 
tWho can forget Henry Clay's burning eloquence in advocacy of Grecian and South 
American Independence? 



MARGARET FULLER. 521 

Look ! on yon bight Columbia stands — 
Immortal laurels in her hands ! 
And hark, her voice — "Rise ! Freemen 1 Rise ! 
Unloose the chain from ev'ry breast ; 

See! see the splendor in yon skies 
Flashed from the bosom of the West ! " 

Roused at the sound, lo ! millions leap 

Like giants from inglorious sleep ! 

What cries are here ? Wliat sounds prevail ? 

Whose name is thundering on the gale ? — 

(Far in the mountains of the North — 
Far in the sunny South away — 

A winged luster beaming forth — ) 
The deathless name of Henry Clay ! 

Mr. Greeley, again writing of Mr. Clay in his "Recollections 
of a Busy Life," says : 

I have admired and trusted many statesmen ; I profoundly 
loved Henry Clay. Though a slaveholder, he was a champion of 
Gradual Emancipation when Kentucky formed her first State Con- 
stitution, in his early manhood; and he was openly the same when 
she came to revise it, half a century later. He was a conservative 
in the true sense of that much-abused term : satisfied to hold by 
the present, until he could see clearly how to exchange it for the 
better ; but his was no obstinate bigoted conservatism, but such 
as became an intelligent and patriotic American. 

From his first entrance into Congress, he had been a zealous and 
effective champion of Internal Improvements, the protection of 
Home Industry, a sound and uniform National Currency — those 
leading features of a comprehensive, beneficent National policy 
which commanded the fullest assent of my judgment, and the best 
exertions of my voice and pen. I loved him for his generous na- 
ture, his gallant bearing, his thrilling eloquence, and his life-long 
devotion to what I deemed our country's unity, prosperity and 
just renown. 

Hence, from the day of his nomination in May to that of his de- 
feat in November, I gave every hour, every effort, every thought, 
to his election. My wife and then surviving child (our third,) 
spent the Summer at a farm-house in a rural township of Massa- 
chusetts, while I gave heart and soul to the canvass. I traveled 
and spoke much ; I wrote, I think, an average of three columns of 
the Tribune each secular day, and I gave the residue of the hours 



522 IIENRY CLAY AND 

I could save from sleep, to watching the canvass, and doing what- 
ever I could to render our side of it more effective. 

Very often, I crept to my lodging near the office, at 2 to 3 A. M., 
with my head so heated by fourteen to sixteen hours of incessant 
reading and writing, that I could only win sleep by means of copi- 
ous affusions from a shower-bath ; and these, while they probably 
saved me from a dangerous fever, brought out such myriads of 
boils, that — though I did not heed them till after the battle was 
fought out and lost— I was covered by them for the six months ensu- 
ing, often fifty or sixty at once, so that I could contrive no position 
in which to rest, but passed night after night in an easy chair. 

And these unwelcome visitors returned to plague me, though 
less severely, throughout the following Winter. 

I have suffered from their kindred since, but never as I did from 
their young luxuriance in that Winter of '44-45. 

Looking back through almost a quarter of a century on that 
Clay canvass of 1844, I say deliberately that it should not have 
been lost — that it need not have been. 

True, there was much good work done in it, but not half so much 
as there should have been. 

I, for example, was in the very prime of life — thirty-three years 
old — and knew how to write for a newspaper ; and I printed in 
that canvass one of the most effective daily political journals ever 
yet issued. It was sold for two cents ; and it had 15,000 daily sub- 
scribers when the canvass closed. 

It should have had 100,000 from the first day onward, and my 
Clay Tribune — a campaign weekly, issued six months for fifty 
cents — should have had not less than a quarter of a million. And 
those two issues, wisely and carefully distributed, could not have 
failed to turn the long-doubtful scale in favor of Mr. Clay's elec- 
tion. 

Of course, I mean that other effective, devoted journals should 
also have been systematically disseminated, until every voter who 
could and would read a Whig journal, had been supplied with one, 
even though he had paid nothing for it. 

A quarter of a million campaign Tribunes would have cost at 
most $125,000 ; and there were single houses largely engaged in 
mining or manufacturing, who were damaged more than that 
amount by Mr. Clay's defeat, and the consequent repeal of the 
Tariff of '42. 

There should have been $1,000,000 raised by open subscription 
during the week in which Mr. Clay was nominated, and every dime 
of it judiciously, providently expended in furnishing information 



MARGARET FULLER. 523 

touching the canvass to the voters of New York, New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania. 

To put a good efficient journal into the hands of every voter who 
will read it, is the true mode of prosecuting a political canvass ; 
meetings and speeches are well enough, hut this is indispensahle. 
Mr. Clay might have heen elected, if his prominent, earnest sup- 
porters had made the requisite exertions and sacrifices ; and I can- 
not hut bitterly feel that great and lasting public calamities would 
thereby have been averted. 

Mr. Clay, born in poverty and obscurity, had not even a com- 
mon-school education, and had only a few months' clerkship in a 
store, with a somewhat longer training in a lawyer's office, as prep- 
aration for his great career. Tall in person, though plain in fea- 
tures, graceful in manner, and at once dignified and affable in 
bearing. 

I think his fervid patriotism and thrilling eloquence, combined 
with decided natural abilities and a wide and varied experience to 
render him the American more fitted to win and enjoy popularity 
than any other who has lived. That popularity he steadily achiev- 
ed and extended through the earlier half of his long public life ; 
but he who now confronted by a political combination well-nigh 
invincible, based on the potent personal strength of General Jack- 
Bon, and this overcame him. 

Five times presented as a candidate for President, he was always 
beaten — twice, in conventions of his political associates, thrice in 
the choice of electors by the people. 

The careless reader of our history in future centuries, will 
scarcely realize the force of his personal magnetism, nor conceive 
how millions of hearts glowed with sanguine hopes of his election 
to the Presidency, and bitterly lamented his and their discom- 
fiture. 



524 HENRY CLAY AND 



[from the NEW YORK TRIBUNE, Wednesday, June 30, 1802. J 



DEATH OF HENRY CLAY. 



[By Telegraph.] 



Henry Clay expired at seventeen minutes past 11 o'clock this 
morning:. 



HENRY CLAY. 



"My hearers!" said the eloquent Massilon, commencing the fu 
neral services for Louis XIV., " God alone is great!" All inequal- 
ities of human powers and achievements, in presence of the Divine 
Majesty, are hut the difference of grains of dust from each other. 

For a long and eventful half century, Henry Clay has home a 
part in guiding the destinies of our country ; for the last forty 
years, that part has been an important one. While yet a youth, he 
became a counsellor of the people, by addressing his fellow citizens 
from place to place in favor of providing in their State Constitu- 
tion, then about to be formed, for the gradual extinction of human 
slavery throughout their State — a suggestion which was overruled 
by short-sighted egotism, but which, had it pi-evailed, would have 
rendered Kentucky 'ere this as wealthy, populous and powerful as 
Ohio now is. Fifty years later, the revision of that Constitution 
afforded him an opportunity for reiterating his convictions on this 
vital theme, which slaveholding selfishness again overruled. "While 
this decision is deeply to be regretted, the cause which enlists and 
retains such an advocate, can never be justly deemed hopeless. 
Kentucky Avill heed more profoundly the voice of her most illus- 
trious Statesman, now that it is hushed forever in death. 

The next great topic which enlisted Mr. Clay's youthful ener- 
gies, was the foolishly arbitrary Alien and Sedition laws, whereby 
the great party founded by Washington was wrecked by the inher- 
itors of his power, without his wisdom. Guided by his strong in- 



MARGARET FULLER. 595 



Btinct of sympathy for Freedom, and hatred of Despotism, Mr. 
Clay enlisted in the support of Jefferson, and contributed by his 
popular eloquence to the zeal and almost unanimity, wherewith 
the West supported his election and administration. The war of 
1812 also found in Mr. Clay one of its earliest, heartiest and most 
efficient champions. 

Having served with distinction in the Legislature of Kentucky, 
Mr. Clay was chosen in 1806, to the U. S. Senate, to fill a short va- 
cancy, and was soon after re-elected for a longer vacancy. Retir- 
ing from that body he was chosen to the House, whereof he was 
immediately made speaker— a compliment never paid to any other 
new member. Thence, until 1825, when he accepted the first place 
in the Cabinet of Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay, with scarcely an interrup- 
tion, was the master-spirit of the House, in which he wielded an 
influence entirely without parallel; whether as presiding officer, as 
a debater, or as a practical legislator, that House has known no 
other member who could be fairly pronounced the equal of Henry 
Clay. 

His conduct of the State Department was able, dignified and 
efficient ; and several of Ins State papers drawn up in that capacity, 
are models for just sentiment and concise energy of expression. 
His instructions to our ministers to the proposed Congress at Pan- 
ama, of American nations, and his plea for the right of the United 
States to navigate freely the St. Lawrence, may serve as exam- 
ples. 

Retiring to private life, at the close of Mr. Adams' term, he 
was thence called to theU. S. Senate, in 1841-2, remaining a member 
of that body, except during, to the day of his death. That he ex- 
ercised therein an influence rarely conceded to any legislator, and 
still more rarely to a minority member, will not be disputed. 

Mr. Clay was a great and good man, but not that faultless min- 
ister whom the world ne'er saw. He was impulsive, high-tem- 
pered, and impatient of contradiction. His mental aptitudes in- 
clined him rather to deal with facts than with principles ; and 
fitted him rather to solve a present difficulty than to evolve and 
establish an eternal truth. Hence, the great rarely been surpassed 
in cogency and fertility of" illustration, in fitness to the occasion 
and force of argument, will be rarely consulted by future genera- 
tions. They have great, but not latent nor perennial merit — their 
importance mainly ceases with the occasion which called them 
into being. 



526 HENRY CLAY AND 



But having admitted this, and that he had some of the faults and 
failings of frail human nature, there remain to he considered, only 
his merits ; to be remembered, only his virtues. For this man had 
a large, warm, gallant human heart — a true, lofty, generous, manly 
soul. By nature frank, brave and cordial, he drew kindred souls 
to his, by the power of an electric sympathy, and kindled noble 
impulses in hearts of common mold. In his presence, the sordid 
and the stolid were warmed into at least temporai*y nobleness of 
aspiration. Only a rare and lofty spirit could have endured for 
half a century the contaminations of that metropolis of slimy, in- 
trigue and soulless ambition, and yet preserved its frankness and 
truthfulness to the end. 

None but a genial and sunny nature could have borne up un- 
soured against twenty-five, years of preposterous yet ignominious 
obloquy, and seen the bloodhounds of Faction baying furiously on 
his track, with a deluded, ferocious majority often yelping in their 
train. Yet we appeal to friend and foe in support of our obser- 
vation, that no statesman of our age had less of the bearing of a 
defeated and disappointed aspirant, than Henry Clay in his later 
years. 

Mr. Clay was an aspirant, but a noble one. For the first quarter 
of the present century, the idol of those who are led by a name like 
sheep by the tinkle of a bell, and for the second quarter (though he 
had changed no iota.) the object of dread and detestation, he would 
have gladly received that which he had nobly deserved, the stamp 
of popular approbation involved in an election to the Presidency. 

Yet if he had been offered that election at any time on the terms 
eagerly accepted by others — if, for instance, he had been assured 
that he might be chosen, if he would only consent to play such a 
dirty game of hide-and-seek as that by which Cass, Douglas, Hous- 
ton & Co. killed the River and Harbor bill of last session, while 
evading the responsibility of voting directly against it— we are 
sure the proposer would have sneaked away from the Great Com- 
moner's presence a much smaller man than he entered it. 

Among the best remembered incidents of our childhood, is the 
reading of the noble speech at the bar of Congress and the country, 
the outrageous usurpation of power by Andrew Jackson, in the 
unauthorized invasion and conquest of Florida, then the undis- 
puted colony of a nation with which we were at peace. That 
speech, by a civilian in exposure and reprehension of the tyrannies 
and crimes of a victorious and idolized military chieftain, was 
worthy of the noblest age of any Republic, ancient or modern. We 



MARGARET FULLER. 527 



have often and decidedly dissented from Mr. Clay's views in later 
years, but we have never ceased to love and honor him for his tear- 
less patriotism in exposing and resisting- that great danger of Re- 
publics, a blind admiration of military achievement, and a disposi- 
tion to varnish over the crimes of conquerors. When such expos- 
ures fall upon the public ear unheeded, then is the Commonwealth 
ready to become the prey of some mad Alexander, all-grasping 
Caesar or villain Bonaparte. 

That Mr. Clay changed his politics or party associations in 1824- 
5, is among the most successful falsehoods of the last generations. 
Five candidates for the Presidency were in the field — all belonging 
to the Democratic party of that time — three of them members of 
the existing Democratic Administration — Mr. Adams, Secretary 
of War, Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of the Navy. Of the other two, 
Mr. Clay was Speaker of the House, Gen. Jackson was a U. S. Sen- 
ator. Before the popular vote was cast, Mr. Calhoun retired from 
the canvass, and threw his strength into the scale of Gen. Jackson, 
whose friends thenceforth suggested him for Vice-President, yet 
no one ever charged these two with having formed a corrupt evo- 
lution. Mr. Crawford was prostrated by a lingering illness, where- 
of he died a year or so afterwards. Mr. Clay received not quite 
votes enough to carry him into the House, and was virtually con- 
strained to support Mr. Adams; as La Fayette testifies, he had 
told him in confidence months before, what he would do, if 
compelled to choose between him and Jackson ; and this has been 
persistently represented by his enemies as a desertion of democra- 
cy. Hereupon he has been stigmatized as a Federalist, and hun- 
dreds of thousands who would otherwise have supported, have 
therefore united in hunting him down through the last twenty- 
five years. 

Happily, Mr. Clay's opinions were longbefore on record, and can- 
not be obliterated of systematic protection to Home Industry, and 
the vigorous prosecution of Internal Improvement. Mi-. Clay had 
been a zealous, able, efficient champion throughout the years when 
he was recognized as the pillar and pride of democracy. Of a Na- 
tional Bank he had formerly been an opponent ; but his opinion on 
this subject w r as changed by the experience of the war of 1812, and 
he supported the charter of the Second Bank in 1816, side by side 
with Madison, A. J. Dallas, Crawford, Calhoun and tAvo-thirds of 
the Democracy of that day. If this change made him a Federalist^ 
so it did these also ; and Democracy became annihilated, or passed 
over to the Federalists, most of whom opposed the bill. 



528 HENRY CLAY AND 



But it is needless to expose farther so palpable a futility. Henry 
Clay in the national councils, was from first to last instinctively an 
advocate of all those measures whereby a nation is strengthened 
by inward growth, rather than external accretion. He sough! na- 
tional greatness and glory through the facilitation and cheapening 
of internal intercourse, the creation of new branches of industry, 
the improvement of national resources, rather than through the 
devastation of foreign territories and the dismemberment of neigh- 
boring countries. Of that wise and benignant system of policy, 
justly know as " the American System," he was one of the founders, 
and has been foremost among its untiring and efficient champions. 
And though faction and calumny prevented his election to the Presi- 
dency, they could not deprive his genius and patriotism of their 
essential enduring reward. Wherever our seamen shall ride out 
a tempest in safety, protected by the piers and breakwaters of our 
Atlantic, or inland harbors — wherever internal trade shall find a 
highway opened for it over mountains or through morasses, by 
the engineer's science, and the laborer's sturdy arm — wherever in- 
dustry shall see its pursuits diversified, and its processes perfect ed 
through the naturalization among us of new arts, or the diffusion 
of manufacturing efficiency — there shall henceforth arise iu the 
hearts of grateful freemen, enduring monuments to the genius, the 
patriotism, the statesmanship, the beneficence of our beloved Hen- 
ry Clay. 



Mr. Clay was born April 12, 1777. He died June 29, 1852, 
aged 75 Years, 2 Months and 17 Days. 



MARGARET FULLER. 529 

MARGARET FULLER. 

Some years ago, Mr. Greeley wrote the following interest- 
ing account of Margaret Fuller, which, without doubt will be 
read with great interest by every lover of literature : 

My first acquaintance with Margaret Fuller was made through 
the pages of the Dial. The lofty range and rare ability of that 
work, and its un-American richness of culture and ripeness of 
thought, naturally filled the fit audience, though few, with a high 
estimate of those who were known as its conductors and princi- 
pal writers. Yet I do not now remember that any article, which 
strongly impressed me, was recognized as from the pen of its 
female editor, prior to the appearance of " the Great Law-suit, 
afterward matured into the volume more distinctively, yet not 
quite accurately, entitled " Woman in the Nineteenth Century." 
I think this can hardly have failed to make a deep impression on 
the mind of every thoughtful reader, as the production of an 
original, vigorous and earnest mind. " Summer on the Lakes," 
which appeared some time after that essay, though before its ex- 
pansion into a book, struck me as less ambitious in its aim, but 
more graceful and delicate in its execution ; and as one of the 
clearest and most graphic delineations ever given of the great 
lakes, of the prairies, and of the receding bai-barism, and the 
rapidly-advancing, but rude, repulsive semi-civilization, which 
were contending with the most unequal forces for the possession 
of those rich lands. I still consider " Summer on the Lakes" un- 
equaled, especially in its pictures of the prairies and of the sun- 
nier aspects of pioneer life. 

Yet, it was the suggestion of Mrs. Greeley, who had spent 
some weeks of successive seasons in or near Boston, and who had 
there made the personal acquaintance of Miss Fuller, and formed a 
very high estimate of, and warm attachment for her, that in- 
duced me, in the Autumn of 1844, to offer her terms, which were 
accepted, for her assistance in the literary department of the Tri- 
bune. 

A home in my family was included in the stipulation. I was 
myself barely acquainted with her when she thus came to reside 
with us, and I did not fully appreciate her nobler qualities for 
some months afterward. Though we were members of the same 
household, we scarcely met save at breakfast ; and my time and 
thoughts were absorbed in duties and cares, which lpft me little 
leisure or inclination for the amenities of social intercourse. 



530 HENRY CLAY AND 

Fortune seemed to delight in placing us two in relations of 
friendly antagonism, or rather, to develop all possible contrasts in 
our ideas and social habits. She was naturally inclined to luxury, 
and a good appearance before the world. My pride, if I had any, 
delighted in bare walls and rugged fare. She was addicted to strong 
tea and coffee, both of which I rejected and condemned, even in the 
most homeopathic dilutions ; while, my general health being sound 
and hers sadly impaired, I could not fail to find in her dietectic hab- 
its the causes of her almost habitual illness ; and once, while we were 
still barely acquainted, when she came to the breakfast table with 
a very severe headache, I was tempted to attribute it to her strong 
potations of the Chinese leaf the night before. She told me quite 
frankly that she declined being lectured on the food or beverage 
she saw fit to take, which was but reasonable in one who had 
arrived at her maturity of intellect and fixedness of habits. So the 
subject was thenceforth tacitly avoided between us ; but, though 
words were suppressed, looks and involuntary gestures could not 
so well be ; and an utter divergency of views on this and kindred 
themes created a perceptible distance between us. 

Her earlier contributions to the Tribune were not her best, and 
I did not at first prize her aid so highly as I afterward learned to 
do. She wrote always freshly, vigorously, but not always clearly ; 
for her full and and intimate acquaintance with continental litera- 
ture, especially German, seemed to have marred her felicity and 
readiness of expression in her mother tongue. While I never met 
another woman who conversed more freeley or lucidly, the at- 
tempt to commit her thoughts to paper seemed to induce a singular 
embarrassment and hesitation. She could write only when in the 
vein, and this needed often to be waited for through several days, 
while the occasion sometimes required an immediate utterance. 
The new book must be reviewed before other journals had thor- 
oughly dissected and discussed it, else the ablest critic would com- 
mand no general attention, and perhaps be, by the greater num- 
ber, unread. That the writer should wait the flow of inspiration, 
or at least the recurrence of elasticity of spirits and relative health 
of body, will not seem unreasonable to the general reader ; but to 
the inveterate hack-horse of the daily press, accustomed to write 
at any time, on any subject, and with a rapidity limited only by 
the physical ability to form the requisite pen-strokes, the notion 
of waiting for a brighter day, or a happier frame of mind, appears 
fantastic and absurd. He would as soon think of waiting for a 
change in the moon. Hence, while I realized that her contribu- 
tions evinced rare intellectual wealth and force, I did not value 



MARGARET FULLER. 531 

them as I should have done had they been written more fluently 
and promptly. They often seemed to make their appearance " a 
day after the fair." 

One other point of tacit antagonism between us may as well be 
noted. Margaret was always a most earnest, devoted champion 
of the Emancipation of Women from their past and present condi- 
tion of inferiority, to an independence of men. She demanded for 
them the fullest recognition of social and political equality with 
the rougher sex ; the freest access to all stations, professions, em- 
ployments, which are open to any. To this demand I heartily ac- 
ceded. It seemed to me, however, that her clear perceptions of 
abstract right were often overborne in practice, by the influence 
of education and habit ; that while 6he demanded absolute equal- 
ity for Woman, she exacted a deference and courtesy from men 
and women, as women, which was entirely inconsistent with that 
requirement. In my view, the equalizing theory can be enforced 
only by ignoring the habitual discrimination of men and women 
as forming separate classes, and regarding all alike as simple per- 
sons — as human beings. So long as a lady shall deem herself in 
need of some gentleman's arm to conduct her properly out of a 
dining or ball-room — so long as she shall consider it dangerous or 
unbecoming to walk half a mile alone by night, I cannot see how 
the "Woman's Eights" theory is ever to be anything more than a 
logically defensible abstraction. In this view Margaret did not at 
all concur, and the diversity was the incitement to much perfectly 
good natured but nevertheless sharpish sparring between us. 

Whenever she said or did anything implying the usual demand 
of woman on the courtesy and protection of manhood, I was apt, 
before complying, to look her in the face and exclaim with marked 
emphasis, quoting from her "Woman in the Nineteenth Century :" 
" Let them be sea-captains if they will !" Of course, this was 
given and received as raillery, but it did not tend to ripen our in- 
timacy or quicken my esteem into admiration. 

Though no unkind word ever passed between us, nor any ap- 
proach to one, yet we two dwelt for months under the same roof, as 
scarcely more than acquaintance, meeting once a day at a common 
board, and having certain business relations with each other. Per- 
sonally, I regarded her as my wife's cherished friend, than as my 
own, possessing many lofty qualities and some prominent weak- 
nesses, and a good deal spoiled by the unmeasured flattery of her 
little circle of inordinate admirers. For myself, burning no in- 
cense on any human shrine, I half consciously resolved to " keep 
my eye-beam clear," and escape the fascination which she seemed 



532 HENRY CLAY AND 

to exert over the eminent and cultivated persons, mainly women, 
who came to our out-of-the-Avay dwelling to visit her, and who 
seemed generally to regard her with a strangely oriental adora- 
tion. 

But as time wore on, and I became inevitably better and better 
acquainted with her, I found myself drawn, almost irresistibly 
into the general current. I found that her faults and weaknesses 
were all superficial and obvious to the most casual, if undazzled, 
observer. They rather dwindled than expanded upon a fuller 
knowledge, or rather, took on new and brighter aspects in the 
light of her radiant and lofty soul. I learned to know her as 
a most fearless and unselfish champion of truth and human good 
at all hazards, ready to be their standard bearer through danger 
and obloquy, and if need be, their martyr. I think few have more 
keenly appreciated the material goods of life — rank, riches, power, 
luxury, enjoyment ; but I know none who would have more cheer- 
fully surrendered them all, if the well-being of our race could 
thereby have been promoted. 

I have never met another in whom the inspiring hope of immor- 
tality was so strengthened into profoundest conviction. She 
did not believe in our future and unending existence — she knew 
it, and lived ever in the broad glare of its morning twilight. 
With a limited income and liberal wants, she was yet generous 
beyond the bounds of reason. Had the gold of California been all 
her own, she would have disbursed nine-tenths of it in eager and 
well-directed eflbrts to stay, or at least diminish, the flood of 
human misery. And it is but fair to state that the liberality she 
evinced was fully paralleled by the liberality she experienced at 
the hands of others. Had she needed thousands, and made her 
wants known, she had friends who would have cheerfully supplied 
her. I think few persons, in their pecuniary dealings, have ex- 
perienced and evinced more of the better qualities of human 
nature than Margaret Fuller. She seemed to inspire those who 
approached her with that generosity which was a part of hei 
nature. Of her writings I do not propose to speak critically. \ 
think most of her contributions to the Tribune, while she re- 
mained with us, was characterized by a dh-ectness, terseness, and 
practicality, which are Wanting in some of her earlier productions. 
Good judges have confirmed my own opinion, that while hei 
essays in the Dial are more elaborate and ambitious, her reviews 
in the Tribune are far better adapted to win the favor and sway 
the judgment of the great majority of readers. -But, one charac- 
teristic of her writings, I feel bound to commend their absolute 



MARGARET FULLER. 533 

truthfulness. She never asked how this would sound, nor 
whether that would do, nor what would be the effect of saying 
anything; but simply, "Is it the truth ? Is it such as the public 
should know?" And if her judgment ansAvered, "Yes," she ut- 
tered it ; no matter wbat turmoil it might excite, nor what odium 
it might draw down on her own head. Perfect conscientiousness 
was an unfailing characteristic of her literary efforts. Even the 
severest of her critics — that on Longfellow's Poems — for which an 
impulse in personal pique has been alleged, I happen with cer- 
tainty to know had no such origin. When I first handed her the 
book to review, she excused herself, assigning the wide divergence 
of her views of poetry from those of the author and his school, as 
her reason. She thus induced me to attempt the task of review- 
ing it myself. But day after day sped by, and I could find no hour 
that was not absolutely required for the performance of some duty 
that would not be put off, nor turned over to another. At length 
I carried the book back to her in utter despair of ever finding an 
hour in which even to look through it ; and, at my renewed and 
earnest request, she reluctantly undertook its discussion. The 
statement of these facts is but an act of justice to her memory. 

Profoundly religious — though her creed was, at once very broad 
and very short — with a genuine love for inferious in social posi- 
tion, Avhom she was habitually studying, by her counsel and teach- 
ings, to elevate and improve, she won the confidence and affection 
of those who attracted her, by unbounded sympathy and trust. 
She probably knew the cherished secrets of more hearts than any 
one else, because she freely imparted her own. With a full share 
both of intellectual and of family pride, she pre-eminently recog- 
nized and responded to the essential brotherhood of all human 
kind, and needed but to know that a fellow-being required her 
counsel or assistance to render her not merely Avilling but eager 
to impart it. Loving ease, luxury, and the world's good opinion, 
she stood readf- to renounce them all, at the call of pity or of duty. 
I think no one, not radically averse to the whole system of domes- 
tic servitude, would have treated servants, of whatever class, with 
such uniform and thoughtful consideration — a regard which 
wholly merged their factitious condition in their antecedent and 
permanent humanity. I think few servants ever lived weeks with 
her, who were not dignified and lastingly benefited by her influence 
and her counsels. They might be at first repelled by what seemed 
her too stately manner and exacting disposition, but they soon 
learned to esteem and love her. I have known few women, and 
scarcely another maiden, who had the heart and the courage to 



534 HENRY CLAY AND 

speak with such frank compassion in mixed circles of the most de- 
graded and outcast portion of the sex. The contemplation of 
their treatment, especially by the guilty authors of their ruin, 
moved her to a calm and mournful indignation, which she did not 
attempt to suppress nor control. Others were willing to pity and 
deplore ; Margaret was more inclined to vindicate and to redeem. 
She did not hesitate to avow that on meeting some of these 
abused, unhappy sisters, she had been surprised to find them 
scarcely fallen morally beloAV the ordinary standard of woman- 
hood — realizing and loathing their debasement ; anxious to escape 
it, and only repelled by the sad consciousness that for them sym- 
pathy and society remained only so long as they should persist in 
the ways of pollution. Those who have read her " Woman," may 
remember some daring comparisons therein suggested between 
these Pariak's of society, and large classes of their respectable sis- 
ters ; and that was no fitful expression — no sudden outbreak — but 
impelled by her most deliberate convictions. I think, if she had 
been born to large fortune, a house of refuge for all female out- 
casts, desiring to return to the ways of virtue, would have been 
one of her most cherished and first realized conceptions. Her 
love of children was one of her most prominent characteristics. 
The pleasure she enjoyed in their society was fully counterpoised 
by that she imparted. To them she was never iofty, nor reserved, 
nor mystical ; for no one had ever a more perfect faculty for enter- 
ing into their sports, their feelings, their enjoyments. She could 
narrate almost any story in language level to their capacities, and 
in a manner calculated to bring out their hearty and often boister- 
ously expressed delight. She possessed marvelous powers of ob- 
servation and imitation or mimicry ; and, had she been attracted 
to the stage, would have been the first actress America has pro- 
duced, whether in tragedy or comedy. Her facility of mimicing 
was not needed to commend her to the hearts of children, but it 
had its effect in increasing the fascinations of her genial nature 
and her heartfelt joy in their society. To amuse and instruct 
them was an achievement for which she would readily forego any 
personal object ; and her intuitive perception of the toys, games, 
stories, rhymes, &c, best adapted to arrest and enchain their at- 
tention, was unsurpassed. Between her and my only child, then 
living, who was eight months old when she came to us, and some- 
thing over two years when she sailed for Europe, tendrils of affec- 
tion gradually intertwined themselves, which I trust Death has not 
severed, but rather multiplied and strengthened. She became his 



MARGARET FULLER. 535 

teacher, playmate, and monitor ; and he requitted her with a 
prodigality of love and admiration. 

I shall not soon forget their meeting in my office, after some 
weeks separation, just before she left us forever. His mother had 
brought him in from the country, and left him asleep on my sofa, 
while she was absent making purchases ; and he had rolled off and 
hurt himself in the fall, waking with the shock in a frenzy of 
anger, just before Margaret, hearing of his arrival, rushed into the 
office to find him. I was vainly attempting to soothe him as she 
entered ; but he was running from one end to the other of the 
office, crying passionately, and refusing to be pacified. She 
hastened to him, in perfect confidence that her endearments would 
calm the current of his feelings — that the sound of her well-re- 
membered voice would banish all thoughts of his pain — and that 
another moment would see him restored to gentleness ; but, half- 
wakened, he did not heed her, and probably did not even realize 
who it was that caught him repeatedly in her arms, and tenderly 
insisted that he should restrain himself. At last she desisted in 
despair ; and, with the bitter tears streaming down her face, ob- 
served : " Pickie, many friends have treated me unkindly, but no 
one had ever the power to cut me to the heart as you have ! " Be- 
ing thus let alone, he soon came to himself, and their mutual 
delight in the meeting was rather heightened by the momentary 
estrangement. They had one more meeting — the last on earth ! 
Aunty Margaret was to embark for Europe on a certain day, and, 
" Pickie'' was brought into the city to bid her farewell. They met 
{his time also at my office, and together we thence repaired to the 
ferry-boat, on which she was returning to her residence in Brook- 
lyn to complete her preparations for the voyage. There they took 
a tender and affecting leave of each other. But soon his mother 
called at the office, on her way to the departing ship, and we were 
easily persuaded to accompany her thither, and say farewell once 
more to the manifest satisfaction of both Margaret and the young- 
est of her devoted friends. Thus they parted never to meet again 
in time. She sent him messages and presents repeatedly from 
Europe ; and he, when somewhat older, dictated a letter in return, 
which was joyfully received and acknowledged. When the 
mother of our great-souled friend spent some days with us nearly 
two years afterward, "Pickie " talked to her often and lovingly of 
" Aunty Margaret," proposing that they two should, " take a boat 
and go over and see her," for to his infantile conception the low 
coast of Long Island, visible just across the East River, was that 
Europe to which she had sailed, and where she was unaccounta- 



536 HENRY CLAY AND 

bly detained so long. Alas, a far longer and more adventurous 
journey was required to reunite those loving souls. The 12th of 
July, 1849, saw him stricken down from health to death, by the 
relentless cholera ; and my letter announcing that calamity, drew 
from her a burst of passionate sorrow, such as hardly any bereave- 
ment but the loss of a very near relative could have impelled. 
Another year had just ended, when a calamity, equally sudden, 
bereft, a wide circle of her likewise, with her husband and infant 
son. Little did I fear, when I bade her a confident good-bye, on 
the deck of her outward-bound ship, that the sea would close over 
her earthly remains ere we should meet again ; far less that the 
light of my eyes and the cynosure of my hopes, who then bade her 
a tenderer and sadder farewell, would precede her ou the dim 
pathway to that "Father's house" whence is no returning! Ah, 
well ! God is above all, and gracious alike in what He conceals 
and what He discloses — benignant and bounteous, as well when 
He reclaims as when He bestows. In a few years, at farthest, our 
loved and lost ones will welcome us to their home. 



MARGARET FULLER. 537 



[From the NEW YORK TRIBUNE, July 23, 1850.] 



DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER. 



A great soul has passed from this mortal stage of being, iu the 
death of Sarah Margaret Fuller ; by marriage Marchioness of Os- 
soli, who, with her husband and child, Mr. Henry Sumner of Bos- 
ton, and others, was drowned in wreck of the brig " Elizabeth '• 
from Leghorn for this port, on the south shore of Long Island, 
near Fire Island, on Friday afternoon last. No passenger survives 
to tell the story of that night of horrors, whose fury appalled many 
of our snugly sheltered citizens reposing securely in their beds. We 
can adequately realize what it must have been to voyagers approach- 
ing our coast from the old world, on vessels helplessly exposed to 
the rage of that wild south-western gale, and seeing in the long 
and anxiously expected laud of their youth and their love, only au 
aggravation of their perils, a death-blow to their hopes, an assur- 
ance of their temporal ! 

Margaret Fuller was the daughter of Hon. Timothy Fuller, a 
lawyer of Boston, but nearly all his life a resident of Cambridge, 
and a representative of the Middlesex District in Congress, from 
1817 to 1825. Mr. Fuller upon his retirement from Congress, pur- 
chased a farm at some distance from Boston, and abandoned law 
for agriculture, soon after which he died, his widow and six child- 
ren still survive. 

Margaret, if we mistake not, was the firstborn, and from a very 
early age evinced the possession of very remarkable intellectual 
powers. Her father regarded her with a proud admiration, and 
was from childhood her chief instructor, guide, companion antJ 
friend. He committed the too common error of stimulating her 
intellect to an assiduity atid persistency which severely taxed and 
ultimately injured her physical powers. At eight years of age, he 
was accustomed to require of her the composition of a number of 
Latin verses per day, while her studies in philosophy, history, gen- 
eral science and current literature, were in aftr r years extensive 
and profound. After her father's death, . she applied herself to 



503 HENRY CLAY AND 



teaching as avocation; first in Boston, then in Providence, and 
afterward in Boston again, where her " Conversations " were for 
several seasons attended by classes of women, some of them mar- 
ried, and including many from the best families of the " American 
Athens." 

In the autumn of 1844, she accepted an invitation to take part in 
the conduct of the Tribune, with especial reference to the depart- 
ment of reviews and criticism on current literature, art, music, etc. ; 
a position which he filled for nearly two years — how eminently our 
readers well know. Her reviews of Longfellow's Poems, Wesley's 
Memoirs, Poe's Poems, Bailey's Festus, Douglas's Life, etc., must 
yet be remembered by many. She had previously found fit audi- 
ence, though few, for a series of remarkable papers on " The Great 
Musicians." Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Woman, etc., etc., in the 
Dial, a quarterly of remarkable breadth and vigor, of Avhich she 
was first co-editor with Ralph Waldo Emerson, but which wa« 
afterward edited by him only, though she continued a contributor 
to its pages. In 1843, she accompanied some friends on a tour via 
Niagara, Detroit and Mackinaw to Chicago, and across the prairies 
of Illinois, and her resulting volume, entitled " Summer on the 
Lakes," is one of the best works in its department ever issued from 
the American Press. It was too good to be widely and instantly 
popular. Her "Woman in the the nineteenth Century," an exten- 
sion of her essay in the Dial, was published by us early in 1845, 
and a moderate edition sold. The next year, a selection from her 
" Papers on Literature and Art " was issued by Wiley and Putnam 
in two fair volumes of their " Library of American Books." We 
believe the original edition was nearly or quite exhausted, but a 
second has not been called for, while books no wise comparable to 
it for strength or worth have run through half a dozen editions. 

These "Papers " embody some of her best contributions to the 
Dial, the Tribune, and perhaps one or two which had not ap- 
peared in either. 

In the summer of 1845, Miss Fuller accompanied the family of a 
devoted friend to Europe ; visiting England, Scotland, France, and 
passing through Italy to Rome, where they spent the ensuing win- 
ter. She accompanied her friend next Spring to the "North of 
Italy," and there stopped, spending most of the summer at Flor- 
ence ; and returning at the approach of winter to Rome, where 
she was soon after married to Giovanni Marquis d'Ossoli, who had 
made her acquaintance during her first winter in the Eternal City. 
They have since resided in the Roman States, until the last sum- 
mer after the surrender of Rome to the French army of assassins 



MARGARET FULLER. 539 



of libei'ty, when they deemed it expedient to migrate to Florence ; 
both having taken an active part in the Republican movement, 
which resulted so disastrously — nay, of which the ultimate result 
is yet to be witnessed. Thence in June they departed, and set 
sail at Leghorn for this port, in the Philadelphia brig " Elizabeth," 
which was doomed to encounter a succession of disasters. They 
had not been many days at sea when the captain was prostrated by 
a disease which ultimately exhibited itself as coflunent small-pox, 
of the most malignant type, and terminated his life soon after they 
touched at Gibralter, after a sickness of intense agony and loath- 
some horror. The vessel was detained some days in quarantine, 
by reason of this affection, but finally set sail again on the 8th ult., 
just in season to bring heron our coast on the fearful night between 
Thursday and Friday last, when darkness, rain and terrific gale 
from the south-west, the most dangerous quarter, (possible) con- 
spired to hurl her into the very jaws of destruction. It is said, 
but we know not how truly, that the mate, in command since the 
captain's death, mistook the Fire Island light for that on the High- 
land of Neverswick, and so fatally miscalculated his course. But 
it is hardly probable that any one could have worked off that coast 
under such a gale, blowing him directly toward the roaring break- 
ers she struck. During the night, and before the next evening, the 
Elizabeth was a mass of drifting sticks and planks, while her pas- 
sengers and part of her crew were buried in the boiling surges. 

Alas ! that our gifted friend, and those nearest to and most loved 
by her, should have been among them. 

We trust a new, compact and cheap edition or selection of Mar- 
garet Fuller's writings will soon be given to the public, prefaced 
by a memoir. It were a shame to us if one so radiantly lofty in 
intellect, so devoted to human liberty and well-being, so ready to 
dare and to endure for the up-raising of her sex and her race, 
should perish from among us, and leave no momento less imperfect 
and casual than those we now have. We trust the more immediate 
relatives of our departed friend will lose no time in selecting the fit- 
test person to prepare a memoir, with a selection from her writings, 
for the press. We believe if such a volume were issued, as large 
and capacious as could well be afforded for a dollar, it would be 
very widely and profitably read ; and then if a sufficient encour- 
agement were proffered for a more comprehensive edition of her 
writings, we should gladly welcome this also. 

America has produced no woman who in mental endowments 
and acquirements has surpassed Margaret Fuller; and it will be a 



540 HENRY CLAY AND MARGARET FULLER 

public misfortune if her thoughts are not promptly and acceptably 
embodied. If they are kept back a year or so, in the usual pretext 
of collating letters, consulting intimate friends, etc., the public 
will lose seriously by the delay. 

But the best idea of our friend's intellect and character cannot be 
obtained from her writings alone. Conversing so profoundly and 
admirably, that she was characterized as " the best talker since De 
Stael." She wrote laboriously, slowly, and not always lucidly and 
happily. Her great thoughts were seldom irradiated by her writ- 
ten languages — interfered with and marred her felicity in the use 
of her native tongue. 

But, however caused, the contrast between the freedom and elo- 
quence of her familiar discourse, and the painful slowness and oc- 
casional awkwardness of her composition, was very striking. 
Passages of rave beauty, as well as signal elevation of sentiment, 
may be gleaned from her works ; but as a whole, they must com- 
mend themselves mainly by their vigor of thought and by habitual 
fearlessness, rather than freedom of utterance. 



CHAPTER XHI. 

A PERSONAL WORD. 




)HLLE attending school in a little village in Illinois, in the 
'Fall of 1851, I occasionally visited an aunt on Saturday 
and Sunday, who lived five miles distant. During one of 
my visits, I met at her house, a stranger who had just come into 
the neighborhood — I think he was from Connecticut, and was un- 
derstood to be a "Yankee." In conversation with him about 
reading books and papers, he spoke of the New York Tribune 
and of Horace Greeley. This was my first information about 
the Tribune, and the first time I had heard of Greeley. The 
account which the " Yankee" gave of both, was to me very inter- 
esting ; although Mr. Greeley's oddities and peculiarities were 
spoken of at the time. I was intensely interested in good books, 
and sought for them wherever I could obtain them. To acquire 
knowledge from books was the strongest desire of my life, and to 
hear of any man or newspaper, whose main efforts were devoted 
earnestly to the diffusion of knowledge, was sufficient to enlist my 
young sympathies in their favor, and a desire to know more of 
them. 

Henceforth, I inquired of every person who I thought was like- 
ly to know, if they could tell me anything about Horace Gree- 
ley and the New York Tribune ; every account I could get was 
encouraging to my anxious soul. 

In 1852, I applied to several business men where I was attend- 
ing school, to know if they would subscribe for a copy of the 
weekly Tribune. Finding a general willingness to do so, I at 
once made up a small club, and sent for the paper. In due time 
it came. This, to me, was a pleasant hour ; I felt that I had in- 



542 A PERSONAL WORD. 

troduced into the village the greatest paper In tne country, 
and had almost got acquainted with Horace Greeley. 

I literally devoured my copy from week to week. I read 
everything in it, and soon found that it contained a vein of 
thought, which was responsive to my soul's desire and aspira- 
tions. Its discussions on politics and moral progress were in 
advance of the barren and mentally weak thoughts of the then 
distant West ; knowing no higher authority, and instinctively 
inclined to take to the most advanced thought in politics and 
religion, as well as in other fields of inquiry, I at once ac- 
cepted the Tribune as my teacher, and have so held it to this 
day. In 1852 I ventured to write Horace Greeley a letter, 
fearing, however, that owing to his distinction and my ob- 
scurity, he would throw my letter aside without consideration. 
But to my great satisfaction it was not long before I received 
an answer from him, dated New Yo v k, April 8, 1852. The 
receipt of that letter still more grati ied me. For, owing to 
my adversities and obscurity in life I felt m yself to be thr 
humblest individual in the world ; yet, honored with a letter 
from Horace Greeley. 1 felt it to be an honor of which no 
one else in the village could boast. I really felt encouraged 
in life on the receipt of the letter, and so highly prized it and 
cared for it, that it is mine to-day. And herein is suggested 
a word of admonition, which should go forth to all men of dis- 
tinction. It is this: they should not be too indifferent to 
those below them. JSTow and then a young man, whose soul 
is swelling with energies, and aspiring to know more, longs 
for a sight and acquaintance with great men, and desires some 
recognition from those especially, whom he most admires, 
To such individuals, a bare friendly recognition, in the way of 
receiving a letter from a man or woman of distinction and 
honor, encourages the aspiring young man, and makes him 
more ambitious, and urges him on to new endeavors. A 
great good can often be done unawares by a distinguished 
man, by simply kindly answering an unknown correspondent, 
though he may live ever so far away, and his letter be ever 



A PERSONAL WORD. 543 

bo poorly written. Let great men ana women bear this in 
mind, and remember that those beneath, in the lower and 
younger walks of life are usually anxious enquirers after 
knowledge. 

Since 1853, I have written often to Horace Greeley, in 
reference to politics, lectures, and various other questions, which 
I desired to make inquiry about, and have, without fail, received 
prompt and appropriate answers. During the greater part of '58 
and '59, I resided at Falls City, Nebraska, a small inland town 
in Richardson County, of that Territory, where corner lots and 
public squares were plenty, and but little value attached to either. 
Every means was used by the citizens to work the town into 
notoriety, and induce people to come to it to settle. It was sug- 
gested one day, that I should write to Horace Greeley, and 
make a statement of the town, its free- State politics and sur- 
rounding country, and ask him to use the facts, and write and 
publish in the Tribune, a good editorial, in favcr of Falls City, 
and the Nemaha County of Nebraska, and for which he was to 
receive one or more corner lots. I wrote as required, and soon 
after eceived the following answer to my letter : 

New York, May 6, '58. 

Friend Keavis : — I thank you for your letter just received, but 
I can't do what you require. I have been an editor near twenty- 
four years, and I never yet owned a "Western town-lot. I am grow- 
ing old and weary, and can't well abide the reputation of writing 
articles for town-lots. But you may write a good, intelligent let- 
ter, setting forth the advantages of the Nemaha region of Nebras- 
ka, and briefly throwing light on the following points : 

1st. Its location. 2. Distance from St. Louis, cost of travel, in 
team and money. 3. Timber. 4. Soil. 5. Population of village. 
6. "Water power. 7. Climate. 8. Productions. 9. Minerals, coal 
iron, etc. 10. Inducements to emigrants. 

Be as brief and clear on each head, as the truth will allow — dis- 
parage no other section, make no invidious comparisons, but let 
your country speak for itself. Speak of the towns now rising ; 



544 A PERSONAL WORD. 

but do nothing that will look like favoritism or puffing. That sort 
of thing always defeats itself. 
"With truly good wishes to old friends, I remain yours, 

Horace Greeley. 
L. U. Reavis, Esq., 
Falls City, 
N. T. 

Some years ago, I was told by a gentleman, whose name I 
cannot now call to mind, that Mr. Greeley had written a very 
beautiful article about a farm of his in Ohio. 1 wrote to him 
for a copy of the article, and received the following letter, in 
reply : 

New York, June 24, 1857. 

Dear Sir : — I have no homestead in Ohio, and never owned a 
foot of land in that nor in any western State, hut Michigan ; where 
I once took forty acres on a bad debt, and sold it for $300, making 
a still worse debt. 

I have a " homestead " of 63 acres in "Westchester county, 36 
miles north of this city, and shall be glad to show it to you, if you 
should ever have a Saturday to spend with me there. I am only 
there on that day. Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 

L. U. Reavis, Esq. 

In December, 1864, I visited New York and "Washington, 
while in New York, I called at the Tribune office, and 
for the first time, saw Mr. Greeley. I met him in the build- 
ing, as he was returning from the general editorial room, where 
he had been to see one of the editors. I presented my card to 
him, and, on reading the name, he at once remembered me, on 
account of having often written to him. In the brief conver- 
sation I had with him, he insisted that I ought to abandon my 
weekly paper, and go at once to farming. But, although I 
had been brought up on a farm, and was familiar with the 
routine of farm work, I did not feel that I could carry out the 
plans and aspirations of my life, by passing into oblivion, in 
the woods, or upon a prairie. It was Friday afternoon ; and 



A PERSONAL WORD. 545 

Mr. Greeley called for his religious and reformatory papers, 
and left for his farm ; and I for "Washington. 

On my return home to Illinois, I wrote and published an 
article in the Central Illinoian, my own paper, entitled 
" Personal observations on men ;" being observations on Hor- 
ace Greeley, Abraham Lincoln and 1ST. P. Banks, all of whom 
I had met during my first trip east. 

The following are the remarks I then wrote about Horace 
Greeley : 

During a ramble of the past few days, our eyes have glanced 
over the physiog, and our ears heard the speech of some of our 
American men, whom the public know, and of whom we have 
this to say — 

The public reads the reputation and history of men, as it does 
that of nations. The superficial and materialistic becomes the 
accredited knowledge of the masses, while the real man is but lit- 
tle known or understood. It is the man, his religious, social and 
executive nature, that the people ought to understand. 

These elements of character, rightly understood, tell us of the 
internal man, and his uses in this world. 

Horace Greeley is well known to the American people as a 
political and reformatory actor in the drama of human society. 
His physical combination being of the nervous sanguine, he has 
made himself by his energy and talent. The student in human 
nature, will, at a glance, perceive him to be a problem and a 
prodigy. He will at once enquire why and how has such a man 
made his way so wonderful in this world. The mass can get no 
deductive answer to such a question ; hence, to them he still re- 
mains a prodigy, wonderful in combination, and without attrac- 
tions in associations ; and yet the great mass of the people, as in 
the case of all great men, stand in the " dress circle" and per- 
form the part of the critic and the fault-finder, while Mr. Greeley, 
like a skillful commedian or dramatist, out-wits them all by his 
successful acts, and makes the occasions of life worth reading. 

That Mr. Greeley has made a success in life, the most ignor- 
ant would not deny ; that he is a man of letters, a bold and clear 



546 A PERSONAL WORD. 

exponent of principles, the most wise and renowned must acknowl- 
edge. 

In looking closely and deeply into his organization, we perceive 
him to be of this structure : In physical organization he com- 
bines the nervous and sanguine, which, in its proportional combi- 
nation and his size of structure gives, in a high degree, mentality, 
energy and industry ; added to these are two combinations of 
mind : the first, which grows out of firmness and its associations, 
and develops self-hood or individuality, in a remarkable degree, 
which makes him personal and self-willed. Next is his large be- 
nevolence, set upon the top of a high intellectual endowment. 

These are the essentials that constitute Horace Greeley, and 
make him what he is. The perfect man is made up of three es- 
sential combinations — a trinity, a full development of the poster- 
ior, the anterior and coronal regions of the brain. Mr. Greeley 
has these combinations, well developed. His coronal endowment 
is somewhat deficient ; therefore, his religion comes through his 
benevolence, and is confined more to works than to faith. He has 
but little intuition, but little inspiration ; hence, his intellect 
through all his life has been devoted to the organization of a kind 
of social and political economy. Within the range of such a style 
of thinking has Mr. Greeley become noted, and it is in a field of 
practical industry and economy, that Mr. Greeley must be visit- 
ed and studied. No temple visions nor Jacob's ladders have ever 
led him away to the skies, but like Franklin, he has ever held 
the string while the kite went above. Intuition in all men every- 
where, carries the same golden keys to unlock doors that lead to 
a higher life, but a large endowment of benevolence, unassociated 
with a full development of the coronal region, is ever seeking for 
new reform. Such is true in the history of all great men. 

It is the materialistic combination that has led Mr. Gree- 
ley into the various isms wherein he has sought to ameliorate 
the condition of man. 

His individuality has been strongly marked in all his acts, 
and through the influence of his large benevolence, all his 
labors have been boldly and earnestly directed to the better- 



A PERSONAL WORD. 547 

ing of the condition of his race. His labors have not been in 
vain. No man in America has wielded the influence, within 
the last ten years, that Horace Greeley has, through the 
medium of the New York Tribune. In tact he is the Her- 
cules that has moved the Republic, and broken the shackels 
from the bondsman. 

He left the high courts of society, and plead the cause of 
women. He has pleaded for temperance, pleaded for freedom, 
pleaded for the poor, and pleaded for humanity everywhere, 
and proclaimed outside of the law, that " righteousness exalt- 
eth a nation and sin is a reproach to any people." In hie 
prayer of twenty millions, he moved the President to a con- 
fession of salvation for the nation. 

We conceive Horace Greeley to be the highest and most 
efficient type of man that this age is capable of producing, 
one who fills the scope of practical usefulness to the highest 
extent possible for this age. Other men may possess more 
genius and more intuition ; other men may make more comet 
flights than he, but none will fill the scope of greatness and 
usefulness better than does he fill it. 

In after ages, in future years when the executive and mater- 
ialistic nature of nations shall have filled their measure of 
growth, and culminated in a union of church and State, then 
will come upon our earth taller columns of humanity who will 
unite in the highest degree the coronal region with the pos- 
terior and anterior portions of the brain, and develop in one 
character the divine and human. Until that age shall come, 
the style of man, such as Mr. Greeley, must be regarded as 
the highest type of usefulness. Mr. Greeley must be re- 
ceived as a practical and efficient man, one worthy of study, 
and one who has made the world better for his having lived. 

Since then, I have met him from time to time, in New 
York, in Washington, and in the West ; and, though greatly 
to my own satisfaction, he is common-place and indifferent to 
stiff rules of society, I look upon him as one of the great men 
of my country, and of the world — still more, that he is as good 



548 A PERSONAL WORD. 

as lie is great. In fact, no man, whose head measures twenty- 
three and one-half inches in circumference, and lias a good or- 
ganic quality, and a good mental temperament, can fail to be 
a great man, if he will only use the opportunities afforded him. 
In 1867, when the Woman Suffrage movement was attract- 
ing some attention throughout the country, I thought of writ- 
ing a pamphlet upon the subject. To give the discussion a 
more varied character, I addressed letters to several distin- 
guished men and women upon the subject. I received sever- 
al answers, but did not publish the contemplated pamphlet. 
I received the following letter from Horace Greeley, which 
has not before met the public eye. 

Office of the Tribune, ) 
New York, March 4, 1867. \ 
My Dear Sir : — You ask me for reasons for or against female 
voting - . I can give neither, because I hold it a question for women 
only. Whenever a majority of our women shall indicate their de- 
liberate choice to he enfranchised, 1 shall feel bound by my adhe- 
sion to the great fundamental principle, that "governments derive 
their just powers from the consent of the governed," to urge and 
vote for their enfranchisement. 

Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 
L. U. Reavis, Esq. 

I have many other letters from Mr. Greeley, whicli, though 
not important to the public eye, I highly prize, and shall re- 
tain in sacred keeping the remainder of my life. I am a be- 
liever in " hero worship." I bow with sublime reverence to 
the great man and the great woman ; but more particularly is 
he my hero, who is great and good, and is my friend. Such 
is Horace Greeley. And when I consider him in all his 
bearings, the faithful and aspiring child of God, the earnest 
and heroic worker for the good of his race, I feel, humble as I 
am, like extending to him the right hand of fellowship, and 
adding to his brow another laurel of immortal honor. 

When I see him still bravely battling for the right, as when 
he first began, my faith is that God has led him on in his grand 



A PERSONAL WORD. 540 

career, and that so true have been his ways of life, so lofty his 
purposes and efforts, that when he has fought the battle 
through the remainder of his days, the divine command will 
be sent down from the upper world, saying, "well done, thou 
good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many things." 

Greeley, "with all thy faults, I love thee still." I bow 
humbly and reverentially to thee, and extend the right 
hand of fraternity and humanity to thee, as wiser brother, 
friend and benefactor. May the remainder of thy earthly 
life be joj'ous, hopeful and serene, and thy purpose fulfilled, to 

*• So live that when the mighty caravan, 
Which halts hut one night time in the vale of death, 
Shall strike its white tents for the morning march, 
Thou shalt mount onward to the eternal hills, 
Thy fool unwearied and thy strength renewed, 
Like the strong eagle's for the upward flight. " 

Then toil on, thou illustrious sage ; there shall come for thee 
a happier time — a bright spring morning in the higher life, 
heralding the eternal day. There you will meet again on the 
shining shores of immortality, the loved and lost of other days. 
There transported, one from the land and one from the sea, 
will you meet again Henry Clay and Margaret Fuller, tall an- 
gels of light, who now live in everlasting triumph above the 
storms of ocean and the ills of earth. There, too, you will 
meet Pickie, and other kindred of your dead in that land, 
where 

"Eternal summer gilds them now," 

there 

" Forgetting what It was to die," 

Honored chieftain ! great soul of humanity ! wilt thou " seek 
a new new life in becoming a part of the mighty whole " of the 
countless millions of the world's people, gone up from every 
land to inhabit heaven. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE LESSON OF HORACE GREELEY'S LIFE. 




T is often said, and truthfully too, that every human being 
exerts some influence upon those with whom he" associates, 
and in the community to which he belongs — that the influ- 
ence of every man and woman, however humble or great, must 
be for good or evil, and must have some moulding and directing 
influence both upon the individuals with whom they associate, and 
on the society of which they are a part. That this is true there is no 
question. It is the operation of the law of social affinity, of the 
law of association, in the mental and moral economy of God. 

That Horace Greeley, through all his life, has exerted a pow- 
erful influence upon the character and destiny of individuals and 
communities around him, is evident to all who know anything of 
his habits of life and his individuality. Not only has he exercised 
a moulding and directing influence over thousands of individuals, 
as well as over communities and States, by the deeds and teach- 
ings of a long life, but more especially will he leave behind him a 
great example, a well earned distinction, a life of industry and in- 
tegrity, and a record full of effort and honor, all of which combine 
the most important lesson of individual success, and individual 
worth, which our country and people has produced, and which are 
destined to exert a moulding and directing influence over the lives 
and characters of millions of the young and aspiring of our race, 
as they succeed each other upon the theatre of life, through com- 
ing centuries of effort and toil. 

The boy of the log cabin, the orphan in the cellar and the gar- 
ret, the poverty-stricken youth, weather-beaten and without a 



THE LESSON OF 551 

home, the aspiring child in obscurity ; the young man seeking a 
home, and willing to earn bread by the sweat of his brow, the 
craftsman and the artisan, the teacher and the editor, the farmer 
and the foundryman, the politician and the statesman, the legisla- 
tor and the reformer, all these, and still others, will, in after 
times, in the obscurity of life, in the effort for success, in mould- 
ing character, in directing legislation, in reorganizing society, and 
in aspiring to the higher life, will read with fresh inspiration, the 
life struggles and success, the deeds and teachings of Horace 
Greeley, " a man without a model," and without a peer. 

His whole life has been a life of success, from the humblest sta- 
tion of boyhood, to the highest achievement of manhood. Not only 
has he moved forward constantly, on the upward grade of life, 
and in conformity to the pimplest and plainest laws of nature, un- 
folded and ripened as the flower and the fruit, in harmony and 
perfection, but he has always been the supreme master of himself 
— controlling and subordinating to his will and ivisdo?n, all the 
passions and all the appetites of his physical and mental nature; 
thus rendering himself an example and model for boys to imitate, 
and men to admire. 

His whole life has been a life of contention and impression. He 
has contended against every form of prevalent error practiced, by 
the individual, the State and the nation. And he has contended 
for the adoption and supremacy of every interest necessary for the 
well-being and elevation of the individual, as well as of the na- 
tional life and character. 

That the reader may not be wanting for evidence to prove 
the earnestness and ability of Mr. Greeley to advise and en- 
courage the young men of the country in the most practical 
avocations of life, and to direct and stimulate the general in- 
terests of society for the good of all ; a few fragments from his 
own pen and his own lips, are herewith presented. They are 
sufficient to form a lesson of rich and rare value, and excite a 
curiosity and an interest in the reader to inquire more into the 
teachings and labors of a man who has proved himself to be 
the friend and helper of all. 



552 Horace greeley's life. 

Though the foregoing thoughts and advice form but an im- 
perfect index to the great and varied labors of Mr. Greeley's 
life, they embrace a sufficient number of the different occupa- 
tions and interests of civilized society, to be of more than ordi- 
nary importance, and will be read everywhere with satisfaction 
and profit. Those who have a desire for the welfare of indi- 
viduals, and for the general good of society, will not differ in 
opinion about the marked and pointed character of Mr. Gree- 
ley's thoughts, and the great importance of these lessons ; for 
though they may seem somewhat fugitive, they are some of his 
best and freshest thoughts. 

THE TRUE BUSINESS MAN. 

If I were asked to define a business man, I should say he was one 
who knew how to set other people's fingers at work — possibly their 
heads, also — to his own profit and theirs. 

This may be in trade, it may be in manufactures, it may be in 
the mechanical arts, or in agriculture ; but wherever the man, who, 
stepping into a new and partially employed community, knows 
how to set new wheels running, axes plying, and reapers and mow- 
ers in motion, and so of all the various machinery of production, 
transformation and distribution, or any part of it— he who knows 
how to do this with advantage to the community, (as he can scarce- 
ly fail to do it,) and with reasonable profit also to himself, that 
man is a business man, though he may not know how to read, even ; 
though he may have no money Avhen he commences ; though he 
has simply the capacity — which some possess and more men aspire 
to — to make himself a sort of driving-wheel to all that machinery. 
If he has this, he is a true business man, although he may never 
have received anything more than the rudest common-school ed- 
ucation. 

Young men, I would have you believe that success in life is with- 
in the reach of every one who will truly and nobly seek it — that 
there is scope for all — that the universe is not bankrupt— that there 
is abundance of work for those who are wise enough to look for it 
where it is — and that, with a sound morality and a careful adapta- 
tion of means to ends, there is in this land of ours larger opportu- 
nities, more just and well grounded hopes, than in any other land 
whereon the sun ever shone. 

Galesburg, III., Feb. 8, 1857. 
Dear Sir: — Yours of the 20th ult., only reached me at this 



THE LESSON OF 553 

place, yesterday. I am lecturing in the "West, and shall not return 
to New York, for some days yet. 

My own course, almost uniformly, has heen to stick to anything 
I could find to do, and never leave a place, so long as any work re- 
mained to be done there. I think you will find that the wise 
course. 

It may seem, that larger wages may be earned elsewhere, but 
expenses are usually proportionate to earnings, and removal ox- 
poses one to the loss of all the position or reputation he may have 
gained. 

Character is the basis of progress and prosperity ; and character 
is more easily established or developed in the country, than in the 
city. 

Men seldom bound to position ; they must grow. 

After a few years, you will be wanted to conduct a journal in 
your own region. Look carefully into the inducements, and be 
not too hasty in accepting — for your time will come. 

Be careful of debt ; he who owes nothing, and has a chance to 
earn his daily bread, is happier than he is aware of. Make friends, 
and gain knowledge ; a few years will render them useful to you. 

With hearty good wishes, I remain, 

Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 

to aspiring young men. 

" I want to go into business," is the aspiration of our young 
men ; " Can't you find me a place in the city ?" their constant in- 
quiry. 

" Friend," we answer to many, " the best business you can go 
into, you will find on your father's farm, or in his workshop. If 
you have no family or friends to aid you, and no prospect opened 
to you there, turn your face to the Great "West, and there build up 
a home and fortune. But dream not of getting suddenly rich by 
speculation, rapidly by trade, or anyhow by a profession ; all these 
avenues are choked by eager, struggling aspirants, and ten must 
be trodden down in the press, where one can vault upon his neigh- 
bor's shoulders, to honor or wealth. 

Above all, be neither afraid nor ashamed of honesty, industry; 
and if you catch yourself fancying anything moi-e respectable than 
this, be ashamed of it to the last day of your life. Or, if you find 
yourself shaking more cordially the hand of your cousin, the Con- 
gressman than of your uncle, the blacksmith, as such, write your- 



554 HORACE GREELEY'S LIFE. 

golf down an enemy to the principles of our institutions, and a trai- 
tor to the dignity of humanity." 

THE WORLD OWES ME A LIVING. 

How owes ? Have you earned it by good service ? If you have, 
whether on the anvil or in the pulpit, as a tailor or a teacher, you 
have acquired a just right to a livelihood. But if you have eaten 
as much as you have earned, or — worse still — have done little or 
no good, the world owes you nothing. You may he worth mil- 
lions, and able to enjoy every imaginary luxury without care or 
effort ; but if you have done nothing to increase the sum -of human 
comforts, instead of the world owing you anything, as fools have 
babbled, you are morally bankrupt, and a beggar. 

TO FARMERS. 

" I can't afford to cultivate my land so nicely ; I am not able." 
Then, sir, sell all you are unable to use properly, and obtain 
means to cultivate thoroughly what you retain. If you have a 
hundred acres, sell fifty ; keep twenty acres of arable, and thirty 
of rocky woodland, and bring this to perfection. 

A HOME OF YOUR OWN. 

We wish it were possible to inbue every man, but especially 
every young man, with the desire of having a home of his own — a 
home to be adhered to through life. Next to the home itself, an 
earnest, overruling desire for one, would be a great blessing. 

A man who OAvns the roof that shelters him, and the soil from 
which he draws his subsistence — and few acres are requisite for 
that — need not envy any Nabob's great fortune. 

TO YOUNG MECHANICS. 

" It is the first step that costs." The main obstacle to saving, is 
the lack of the habit. He, who at twenty-two, has saved a hun- 
dred dollars, earned by honest, useful effort, during the first year 
of his self-control, will be very unlikely, ever to be destitute there- 
after. On the other hand, he who has saved nothing at the end of 
his first year of independence, will be pretty certain to carry a poor 
man's head on his shoulders, while he lives. 

Our young mechanics are not thrifty, because of the evil habits 
they have formed during their minority. * * * 

Bv-and-bye he marries, and retrenches some of his worst expen- 



THE LESSON OF 



555 



ses, but too late — the increased demands of a growing family ab- 
sorb every cent he can earn ; and at fifty or sixty years of age, you 
will see him emerging, seedy and sickly, from the groggery, whith- 
er he has repaired for his hitters or his eleven o'clock lunch, en- 
feebled in body, and discouraged in spirit, out of humor with ev- 
erybody, and cursing the banks, or the landlords, the capitalists, 
or the speculators, as plunderers and enslavers of the poor. 

COMING TO THE CITY. 

The young man fit to come to a city, does not begin by impor- 
tuning some relative or friend to find or make a place for him. 
Having first qualified himself, so far as he may, for usefulness here, 
he comes understanding that he must begin at the foot of the class, 
and work his way up. 

Having found a place to stop, he makes himself acquainted with 
those places, where work in his line may be found, sees the adver- 
tisements of "Wants," in the leading journals, at an early hour 
each morning, notes those which hold out some prospects for him, 
and accepts the first place offered him, which he can take honor- 
ably, and fill acceptably. 

He who commences in this way, is quite likely to get on. 

A LABOR-EXCHANGE. 

"What I would suggest, would be the union and organization of 
all workers, for their mutual improvement and benefit, leading to 
the erection of a spacious edifice, at some central point in our city, 
to form a laborer's Exchange, just as commerce now has its Ex- 
change, very properly. Let the new Exchange be erected, and 
owned as a joint-stock property, paying a fair dividend to those 
whose money erected it ; let it contain the best spacious hall for 
general meetings to be found in our city, with smaller lecture- 
rooms, for the meetings of particular sections or callings — all to be 
leased or rented at fair prices, to all who may choose to hire them, 
when not needed for the primary purpose of discussing and ad- 
vancing the interests of labor. 

Let us have here books opened, wherein any one wanting work 
may inscribe his name, residence, capacities and terms, while any 
one wishing to hire, may do likewise, as well as meet personally, 
those seeking employment. 

PAY AS YOU GO. 

"Mr. President," said John Eandolph once, apropos to nothing, 



556 Horace greelet's life. 

in one of his rambling Congressional harangues, " I have found the 
philosopher's stone ! It consists of four short English words— ' Pay 
as -"ou go.' " 

TO THE LOVERS OF KNOWLEDGE. 

Avoid the pernicious error, that you must have a profession — 
must he a clergyman, lawyer, doctor, or something of the sort — in 
order to he influential, useful, respected ; or, to state the case in its 
best aspect, that you may lead an intellectual life. 

Nothing of the kind is necessary — very far from it. If your ten- 
dencies are intellectual — if you love knowledge, wisdom, virtue, 
for themselves, you will grow in them ; whether you earn your 
bread by a profession, a trade, or by tilling the ground. Nay, it 
may be doubted, whether the farmer or mechanic, who devotes his 
leisure hours to intellectual pursuits, from a pure love of them, 
has not some advantages therein, over the professional man. 

He comes to his book at evening, with his head clear, and his 
mental appetite sharpened by the manual labors, taxing lightly the 
spirit or brain ; while the lawyer, who has been running over dry 
Dooks for precedents, the doctor, who has been racking his wits 
for a remedy adapted to some new modification of disease, or the 
divine, who, immured in his closet, has been busy, preparing his 
next sermon, may well approach the evening volume, with facul- 
ties jaded and pallid. 

TO YOUNG ORATORS. 

A young "Whig inquires, "how are young men who can speak to 
be distinguished from the many who only think they can, and 
brought into the field ?" 

We answer — Step out into any neighborhood where you are ac- 
quainted, and if there is no Clay Club there now, aid in getting 
one up. You will there, naturally be called on to speak at its 
opening, and be sure you have a thorough acquaintance with the 
facts material to the great issue, and the documents under your 
elbow, to sustain them. 

After that, if you speak to the purpose, you will be called on 
quite as often as you will choose to speak. But choose small gath- 
erings, until you know that you are master of the questions in is- 
sue. 

A WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 

We have not much faith in monument-building ; yet it strikes 



THE LESSON OF 557 

us that a monument to "Washington, so planned, as to minister at 
every point, to purposes of great public utility, would be a good 
thing. Let it contain apartments consecrated to art and knowl- 
edge — let its summit be an observatory, telegraph station, etc., 
and the common and forcible objection to monuments, will be ob- 
viated. 

THE COLORED PEOPLE. 

"What the colored people need, is not so much power as self-ele- 
vation — not so much better manners, and greater consideration 
from the whites, as greater respect for, aud confidence in them- 
selves, based on substantial grounds. So long as they remain 
pretty generally boot-blacks, tavern-waiters, clothes-scourers, etc., 
from seeming choice, the right to vote, will be of precious little 
account to them. 

But let them as a class, step aside from those who insult and de- 
grade them, like a small band of them in Ohio, buy a tract of land 
which shall be all their own, and go to work upon it, clearing, 
building, farming, manufacturing, etc., and they will no longer 
care much, that those who are of baser spirit, though with whiter 
skins, refuse to consider them men, and admit them to the com- 
mon privileges of manhood. 

"We see no plan of elevating them half so certain or so feasible as 
this. 

TO YOUNG LAWYERS AND DOCTORS. 

Qualify yourselves at college, to enlighten the farmers and me- 
chanics, among whom you settle, in the scientific principles and 
facts iohich underlie their several vocations. 

The great truths of geology, chemistry, etc., etc., ought to be 
well known to you, when your education is completed, and these, 
if you have the ability to impart and elucidate them, will make 
you honorably known to the inhabitants of any county wherein 
you may pitch your tent, and will thus insure you a subsistence 
from the start, and ultimately professional employment and com- 
petence. 

Qualify yourself to lecture accurately and fluently, on the moi'e 
practical and important principles of natural science, and you will 
soon And opportunities, auditors, customers, friends. 

Show the farmer how to fertilize his fields more cheaply and ef- 
fectively than he has hitherto done — teach the builder the princi- 
ples and more expedient methods of heating and ventilation — tell 



5^8 Horace greeley's life. 

the mason how to correct, by understanding and obeying nature's 
laws, the defect which makes a chimney smoke at the wrong end 
— and you need nerer stand idle, nor loug await remunerating em- 
ployment. 

TO AN INQUIRING SLAVEHOLDER. 

It seems to us, that a conscientious man, convinced of the wrony 
of slaveholding, should begin the work of redressing that wrong 
at once. 

And if we were in our correspondent's place, and the laws of 
that State forbade emancipation on her soil, and the teaching of 
slaves, we should remove with them at once, to some convenient lo- 
cality where no such tyrannical statutes existed. 

Then (or on our old plantation, if the laws did not forbid,) we 
should say to those slaves : " You are free, and may leave if you 
choose ; but I advise you to stay with me, till I shall have taught 
you to use and enjoy your freedom. I will either myself teach you, 
two hours daily, or I will employ some competent person to do so ; 
and I will share fairly with you, the proceeds of my land and your 
labor. At the year's end, I will settle fairly with you, and any 
one who chooses, may then take his portion, and leave ; while I 
with those who remain, will endeavor to raise a better crop next 
year. I think you can all earn more, live better, and save more, by 
staying with me, than by going off; if you don't think so, go ; 
or, if you stay now, go whenever you shall come to think so. 

But while you stay here, I must be obeyed ; and any one who 
don't obey me and behave himself, will have to leave." 

Now, we feel confident that a slave-holder who should adopt this 
course and firmly pursue it, would soon have the finest plantation 
and the best crops in his county — keeping all his good blacks and 
getting rid of the bad ones, and with all his laborers working un- 
der the stimulus of personal interest, and impelled by pride to 
make as good a show as possible in the settlement at the end of the 
year. 

We believe the great majority of any planter's slaves might thus 
be quietly educated into fitness for freedom and self-direction, as 
well as into a competent knowledge of letters and the elemental 
arts, while the planter would find himself, at ten years' end, not 
only wiser, but actually richer, than if he had continued to hold his 
laborers in hopeless slavery. 

Rely on it, friend ! it can never be dangerous nor impolitic to 
do right ; and what Washington, John Randolph, and many other 



THE LESSON OF 559 

eminent Southrons, saw fit to do on their death-beds, you may 
safely and wisely do while you live. 

TO COUNTRY EDITORS. 

"We fear there are some country editors who do not clearly per- 
ceive and improve the advantages of their position. If they would 
only make their papers the vigilant gleaners of all local intelli- 
gence, the fosterers of local interests, local institutes for promoting 
knowledge, etc., etc. ; above all, if they would stop publishing so 
many frivolous stories, and other mere transcripts from the city 
magazines and journals, filling their columns instead with accounts 
of the latest and most valuable discoveries and improvements in 
agriculture, the arts, and all branches of practical science, they 
would have an abundance of subscribers, and could not be des- 
troyed, even though city editors were so unprincipled as to give 
their papers away and pay the postage. Only make your papers 
what they should be, and the people of your vicinity cannot afford 
to do without them. 

Do these remarks offend any ? They surely ought not, for they 
are dictated by a sincere desire to benefit. "We learned what lit- 
tle we know of our business, mainly in " sticking type," etc., for var- 
ious country papers, and ought to know something about them. 
We have an earnest desire that they should deserve a generous sup- 
port and receive it, for we know how essential a good country 
press is. 

ADVERTISING AND CASH. 

Extensive advertising of itself is morally certain to work a revo- 
lution in trade, by driving thousands of the easy-going out of it, 
and concentrating business in the hands of the few who know how 
to obtain and keep it. Unite with this the substitution of cash for 
credit, and one-fifth of those now engaged in trade, will amply suf- 
fice to do the whole— and will soon have it to do. The revolution 
is already begun. 

IN PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR. 

It is not true that our best security for peace, is keeping up an 
army at a cost of $15,000,000 a year to the people. All that we 
need are iron, lead, men, good schools and good roads. 

There is more of military capability for defense in one railroad 
than in all the fortifications from Boston to Charleston. No ; we 



560 Horace greeley's life. 

want the legislation that will make the country independent and 
prosperous ; we want the money-changers driven from the tem- 
ple ; in each State, if you will, a school for the diffusion of the sci- 
ence of civil engineering and military science, to convert our peo- 
ple in case of need, into disciplined soldiers. 

It does, indeed, behoove us in peace to prepare for war ; but this 
is all the preparation we Avant. 

TO COUNTRY MERCHANTS. 

The merchant's virtue should be not merely negative and ob- 
structive — it should be actively beneficent. He should use oppor- 
tunities afforded by his vocation, to foster agricultural and me- 
chanical improvement, to advance the cause of education, and dif- 
fuse the principles, not only of virtue, but of refinement and cor- 
rect taste. 

He should be continually on the watch for whatever seems cal- 
culated to instruct, ennoble, refine dignity, and benefit the commu- 
nity in which he lives. He should be an early and generous pa- 
tron of useful inventions and discoveries, so far as his position and 
means will permit. He should be a regular purchaser of new and 
rare books, such as the majority will not buy, yet ought to read, 
with a view to the widest dessemination of the truths they unfold. 
If located in the country, he should never visit the city to replen- 
ish his stock, without endeavoring to bring back something that 
will afford valuable suggestions to his customers and neighbors. 

H these are in good part farmers, and no store in the vicinity is 
devoted especially to this department, he should be careful to keep 
a supply of the best plows, and other implements of farming, as 
well as the choicest seeds, cuttings, etc., and those fertilizing sub- 
stances, best adapted to the soil of his township, or most advan- 
tageously transported thither ; and those he should bo very willing 
to sell at cost, especially to the poor or the penurious, in order to 
encourage their general acceptance and use. Though he makes no 
profit directly on the sales of these, he is indirectly but substan- 
tially benefited by whatsoever shall increase the annual production 
of his township, and thus the ability of his customers to purchase 
and consume his goods. 

The merchant whose customers and neighbors are enabled to 
turn off three, five, seven or nine hundred dollars worth of pro- 
duce per annum, from farms which formerly yielded but one or 
two hundred dollars' worth, beyond the direct consumption of their 
occupants, is in the true and safe road to competence and wealth, 
if he knows how to manage his business. 



THE LESSON OF 501 

Every "wild wood or waste morass rendered arable and fruitful, 
every field made to grow fifty bushels of grain per acre, where but 
fifteen or twenty were formerly realized, is a new tributary to the 
stream of his trade, and so clearly conducive to his prosperity. 

TENEMENT HOUSES. 

The wretched, tumble-down rookeries, now largely inhabited 
by the poor of our city, are horribly wasteful in every way — 
wasteful of space, of property, of health, of life. Sweep away all 
these kennels on a block — say about Elizabeth or Stanton street, 
and build up in their stead a substantial structure, six to eight 
stories high, with basement and sub-cellar ; the whole divided into 
rooms, suits of rooms for families and single persons, with baths, 
wash-houses, refectories, etc., in the basement, and public and pri- 
vate parlors, library, reading room, etc., on the second flooi*s. Let 
the first floor for stores or shops, and a part of the second for offi- 
ces, if required ; put the whole building in charge of some respon- 
sible person disqualified for rugged labor, to be let at reasonable 
rates, payable monthly in advance — the highest story not more 
that fifty cents per bed-ioom. 

Such an edifice (economizing the space now required for cook- 
ing, washing, yard-room, etc.,) might afford accommodations to 
families, at one hundred to two hundred dollai*s, according to size 
and location ; while two seamstresses might have an attic in com- 
mon, for one dollar each per month. As each family could hire a 
parlor or bed-room (retained for this purpose,) whenever it had 
company, no one need hire regularly, any more room than it abso- 
lutely needed, while a large square in the center of the block should 
be embellished with trees and shrubbery, gravel walks, grass plat 
and fountain. 

One such edifice filled with tenants, and paying ten per cent, to 
its owners, with a liberal margin for repairs, would very soon be 
imitated and improved upon, until our whole laboring population 
would be far better lodged than they now are, at half the expense, 
while room would be made on our island for thrice the population 
it can stow away under the present architectural anarchy. Pesti- 
lence would be all but rendered impossible by this building re- 
form. 

The foregoing selections are only a few paragraphs from the 
varied and copious writings of Mr. Greeley, designed to 
show the tendency and influences of his teachings upon the 



562 Horace greelet's life. 

public affairs of his own time, and upon the conduct of those who 
value his opinions. That his practice and his preaching corres- 
pond, the reader is aware. He knows whereof he affirms, and 
his message is exactly suited to our case ; hence, its power. 

IN WHAT SENSE HE CONSIDERS HIMSELF A POLITICIAN. 

If the designation is a discreditable one, I trust I have done noth- 
ing toward making it so. If to consider not only what is desira- 
ble, but what is possible as well — if to consider in what order de- 
sirable ends can be attained, and attempt them in that order — if to 
seek to do one good so as not to undo another — if either or all of 
these constitute one a politician, I do not shrink from the appella- 
tion. 

HORACE GREELEY'S TOAST, SENT TO A " KNOW-NOTHING " 
BANQUET — THE COMRADES OF WASHINGTON. 

Let us remember that, while the "foreigners," Montgomery and 
Pulaski, died gloriously, fighting for our freedom, while Lafayette, 
Hamilton and Steuben, proved nobly faithful to the end, the trai- 
tor Arnold, and the false ingrate Burr, were sons of the soil — facts 
which only prove that virtue is bounded by no geographical lim- 
its, and treachery, peculiar neither to the native, nor the immi- 
grant. 

HIS REPLY TO A BEGGING LETTER — TO THE EDITOR OF 
THE NEW. YORK TRIBUNE. 

My Dear Sir: — The young gentlemen of the Philologian Lit- 
erary Society, of the Masonic College, request me to tender their 
sincere regards to you, and ask if you will be so kind as to denote 
to them a copy of the "Weekly Tribune. The society consists of fif- 
ty students, who are anxious to form, for their sole benefit, a read- 
ing-room in their hall. 

While we all abhor your principles, we respect you as a talented 
and honorable foe ; and your paper would be cheerfully welcomed 
in our hall, not for the principles which it advocates, but for the 
ability with which they are promulgated. 

Be assured, sir, that we will all feel under many obligations, if 
you will make us such a present. 

With gratitude and respect, S. C. H. 

Corresponding Secretary. 



THE LESSON OF 5G3 

REPLY. 

Lexington, Mo., January 30, 1855. 

Mr. Secretary : — Among those " principles " which you say 
you ahhor, this one is prominent, namely : " That God having 
wisely and benignly ordered his universe, that something can nev- 
er be acquired for nothing " — that " so much " is the eternal and im- 
mutable law — men should conform his conduct to his beneficent 
law. The robber, the swindler, the beggar, the slaveholder, all 
vainly suppose that there is some other way of acquiring and en- 
joying the products of other men's labor, than by paying for it; 
but God says no, and he will be obeyed. Steal, cheat, beg or en- 
slave, as you may, you can at best, but postpone payment — it will 
last be exacted with fearful usury. 

In short, as there is no other proper way, so there is no other 
way so cheap, when we desire ought that is produced by the labor 
of others, as to fork over the needful — lay it right down on the 
nail. 

You will see, therefore, that those detested principles, which 
you are at liberty, henceforth to abhor more than ever, forbid my 
complying with your delicately worded request. 

" Editor Tribune." 

his reply to another — a. b. to horace greeley. 

Dear Sir: — In your extensive correspondence, you have un- 
doubtedly secured several autographs of the late distinguished 
American poet, Edgar A. Poe. If so, will you please favor me with 
one, and oblige Yours, respectfully, 

"A. B." 

HORACE GREELEY TO A. B. 

Dear Sir: — I happen to have in my possession, but one auto- 
graph of the late distinguished American poet, Edgar A. Poe. It 
consists of an I. O. U., with my name on the back of it. It cost 
me just $50, and you can have it for half price. 

Yours, 

Horace Greeley. 

Almost every interest in human society has received a helping 
hand from Horace Greeley ; his impress is upon them all. He 
is the friend of all, and has aided all. The young man and the 



564 Horace greeley's life. 

young woman, in low or high life ; the father and the mother, the 
artisan and the citizen, the plowman and the sailor, the teacher 
and the preacher, the statesman and the reformer, all find in him 
a Mend and helper. His impress is upon every branch of indus- 
try, whether upon the land or sea. 

Then does not the life of such a man, form an enduring lesson 
of good, destined to be of infinite value to the rising generations ? 
Is not such a man a good man ? Surely he must be. 

I have never known a man who disliked or hated Horace Gree- 
ley, that did not have some of the lower instincts of human na- 
ture, dominent in his organization — a man who was a kind of hater 
of his race, one not willing to live up to the principles of the golden 
rule, and do his fellow men justice, in the race of life. On the 
other hand, I have never known a man who admired and loved 
Horace Greeley, who did not have some of the generous senti- 
ments of human nature uppermost in his life-practice, and who 
had a sense of justice for his fellowmen ; and I count this to be 
true of all men who are for or against Horace Greeley. 

Said one of Mr. Greeley's greatest friends, while speaking of 
him for President : 

" Well, Republicans, there is a man who began with the Republi- 
can party ; a man of the people ; born poor, but honest and indus- 
trious ; a man that came to New Yr«rk with all his clothes tied up 
in a handkerchief on a stick, without perhaps fifty cents in his 
pocket ; who acquired an independent subsistence ; a man who 
from that day to this, has sympathized with the laboring man ; 
who honors industry ; wherever there is an act of charity to be 
done, there you find him present, aiding and assisting the distress- 
ed ; who despises popularity ; who catches the inebriate by the 
hand, and lifts him to a higher level, to save the wife, children and 
family from ruin, whatever demagogues may say against him ; who 
goes to agricultural meetings, and joins his knowledge and reading 
with skill and experience ; who goes to the workshop where the 
sturdy mechanic is engaged in his various industries, and takes 
him by the hand and gives him a word of encouragement, that he 
may be elevated to a higher level ; a man who loves the constitu- 
tion ; a man who makes no war upon wealth, knowing that wealth 
is accumulated labor ; who with great opportunities for wealth, 



THE LESSON OF 5G5 

dares to be poor ; who with an immense yearly revenue, gives it 
away to friends and objects of charity, because he has within him 
a nobility greater than the surroundings of wealth can ever give 
him. You know who this man is. It is Horace Greeley, of 
New York. [Loud applause.] 

Don't he know more about the political history of this country 
than any man in it ; about "parties and about men ; about dates, 
measures and laws ; a perfect almanac himself, and the best maker 
of an almanac — which is a very good book, as Franklin thought. 
[Laughter.] Indeed, he is the modern Franklin, and very justly 
so. Through his intelligence, his huge intellect, he has overcome 
the baser passions, for his own good and the good of humanity. 
"Why don't you take him ? [Applause.] 

When the terrible riot broke out in New York, in '1863, those 
hell engendered fiends determined to mob and destroy the Tri- 
bune office. Bent on their hellish purpose, they made their way to 
the apparently doomed building. In the meantime, Mr. James 
Parton, having learned the purpose of the rioters, hurried in the 
advance to notify Mr. Greeley of their coming, and to get him 
out of the way of the rioters, to where his life would be se- 
cure. On reaching the Tribune office, he at once informed Mr. 
Greeley of the intention of the rioters, and of their immediate 
approach, and the necessity of fleeing at once for safety. Mr. 
Greeley was slow to believe that there was any danger, and when 
one of his associates said to him, in the morning, of the day the 
riot took place, " we must arm the office ; this is not a riot, it is 
a revolution," Mr. Greeley replied, " no, do not bring a musket 
into the building ; let them strike the first blow ; all my life, I 
have worked for the working men ; if they would now burn my 
office and hang me, why let them do it." 

But this was the response of the humanitarian and philosopher, 
to the mob. But where is the other man that would thus answer 
from the simplicity of his nature ? No mob could appreciate such 
an answer, and be turned away by the grandeur and majesty of 
such a guileless expression. It is akin to that other all compas- 
sionate utterance of a great over-soul, who, when about to forfeit 
his life, for endeavoring to rescue his people from ignorance and 



566 Horace greeley's life. 

bondage, rose to the majesty of his divine nature, and said: 
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Men 
with such souls, with such non-resistance and simplicity, and yet 
with such great natures, outlive all the ignorance and predjudice 
of the vulgar and the base ; outlive the mob and the murderer ; 
outlive error ; outlive ambition, and the good and the great of the 
world's people, enroll their names in the shining galaxy of the 
men and women of true fame, who have passed from mortal sight 
into everlasting history and heaven, to take their places 

" With patriarchs and prophets, and the blest. 
Gone up from every land to people Heaven." 

The boy, who from the depths of his soul, seeks for knowledge 
in the practical fields of learning, and delights in the earnest en- 
deavors and heroic deeds of his fellows, will be reverentially at- 
tracted to Horace Greeley. He will study the life and indus- 
trious career of this great and good man, and though far from his 
presence, far from his home or far from his tomb, will bless his 
memory, and feel encouraged to go forth in the battle of life, to 
equal deeds and equal honors. No matter how poor the boy may 
be, no matter if he be refused the crumbs that fall from the rich 
man's table, he can turn to the life of Horace Greeley, and there 
find the record of a boy who was once his equal in poverty and 
in obscurity ; the boy will read of the privations of the young Gree- 
ley and the life-struggles through which he passed. He will reflect 
over his condition and glory over the opportunity afforded him. 
The whole life of Horace Greeley unrolls before him ; he 
sees it to be one constant success, in spite of opposing ignorance, 
in spite of rivalry and adversity. The boy beholds spread out be- 
fore him a glorious example of a true life, crowned with success, 
crowned with honor and fame, and he resolved to go and live like- 
wise, to go forth to the conflict of life, strengthened and deter- 
mined to make the most he can of the opportunities afforded, and 
thus encouraged and thus strengthened in his own true boyhood, 
he masters all obstacles, lives righteously, and accomplishes the 
end he resolved to achieve, and adds another name of true honor 



THE LESSON OF 567 

and fame to the noble band of self-made men, who have done 
right because it was right. Such will be the enduring lesson 
of Horace Greeley's life, his individuality, his industry and in- 
tegrity, his triumph over all obstacles, and his complete success 
in life, that millions of the young and aspiring of our race, all 
over the land, will be aided, strengthened and encouraged to go 
forth with renewed vigor, to greater efforts and nobler deeds in the 
warfare of life, seeking equal honor, equal fame, and blessing the 
name and the memory of their great friend and lofty example, 
of true worth. His lesson of life is a free gift to all ; no class 
or special interest can exclusively appropriate him. His whole 
deeds and his varied teachings, are a shining shield for all, 
whether high or low, rich or poor. 

Then let the lesson of his life and deeds go forth to the human 
race, and let each learn that the lesson is founded on the divine 
conviction that every human being must do right because it is 
right. 

Young men of America ! these pages — the record of the thoughts 
and deeds of a great and true man — are presented to you by one 
of your countrymen, who, all along, from early orphanage, has 
been schooled in the bitter trials of life ; whose poverty debarred 
all opportunities, and left human nature alone, to battle for exist- 
ence in the frontier of the Great West. I pray you, accept these 
pages from one who has studied and admired Horace Greeley, 
from the time he first learned that such a man lived. Remember, 
that though his career has been distinguished, and his record is 
now great, that he began life a poor boy, without opportunities, 
and by his own efforts, and constantly being himself, he conquered 
all obstacles, conquered poverty, conquered trials and disappoint- 
ments, patiently and persistently endured sunshine and storm, and 
moved forward in a majestic career of life, until he now stands in 
the front rank of the great men of his country, honored and loved 
by all, a true and lofty example of a successful man, whose deeds 
of life afford an enduring lesson for the generations of the com- 
ing centuries. 

Young men of America ! accept the life example of Horace 



5GS 



HORACE GREELEY'S LIFE. 



Greeley ; study it, and be encouraged by his efforts. He is your 
elder brother, your friend and benefactor. He traveled alone the 
rugged path of life. He has triumphed over all the vicissitudes 
"which poverty, envy, jealousy and hate, placed in his lonely way. 
He has carved his own name high up on the enduring temple of 
fame, and there to shine in everlasting honor through the rolling 
centuries of the future. 

Young men of America ! he has pointed the way of life for you. 
He has made a record of his trials, and how to surmount them. 
The record is before you ; study it well : for 

"Lives of great men all remind us. 

We can make onr lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us, 

Footprints on the sands of time. 

Footprints, that perhaps another. 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother. 

Seeing, shall take heart again." 

Above and beyond, the lesson which the example and deeds of 
Horace Greeley's life is destined to exert on individuals, by en- 
couraging and directing them aright in their own life- careers, he 
has exerted a moulding influence upon the body politic, and im- 
pressed his thoughts and teachings upon society at large, with a 
vigor, earnestness and originality, that neither creeds, dogmas, am- 
bition or rapacity can destroy or prevent from contributing to the 
general good of the people and the country, as long as the generous 
and honest sentiments of the human soul have a recognized value 
in directing the affairs of society and State. Reader! go where 
you will, over the land. Go, if you please, to the capital of 
your country ; go to every department of administration, and you 
will find Horace Greeley looking earnestly and unselfishly, to 
direct the President and his Cabinet officers, or the Congress 
of your country, in the honest and wise performance of their du- 
ties. Go to the courts, and you will find him urging the judges 
to do justice, and enforce the law. Go to the high seas, and you 
will find him striving to better the condition of commerce, to make 
it more profitable and less perilous, to those in its employ. Go 



THE LESSON OF 569 

to the manufacturer and the merchant, and there you will find him 
alike devoted in aiding to render each of those great branches of 
human industry more profitable and reciprocal with each other. 
Go to the church, and you will find him pleading with the minis- 
ters, to deal less in forms and ceremonies, and more in principles 
and deeds of humanity. Go to society, and you will find him 
there, laboring for a better organization, denouncing hypocricy 
and pretension, and urging more reality, more genuine rules and 
regulations, for the association and happiness of individuals. Go 
to the garret and the cellar, to the orphan and the poor, you will 
find him there, pleading for protection and plenty for the sons 
and daughters of misfortune and beggary, and asking the law- 
maker, the wise, the rich, to see to it that none shall go wanting, 
in nakedness and in hunger. Go to the schools and colleges, and 
you will find him there, pleading for education for all ; pleading 
for a more practical training and discipline of the sons and daugh- 
ters of the land. Go to the inhabitant of the log cabin, on the 
frontier, or in the wilderness of the Great West, and you will find 
him there, the friend and benefactor of the farmer and mechanic, 
the herdsman and tradesman, teaching all, with like earnestness 
and devotion, to right, as he does the wealthy and the great in the 
cities of civilization. For he is the same devoted and earnest 
friend to all, whether — 

" On the hilltops 
And In pastures." 

Go to the father and mother, and you will find him there, plead- 
ing for a more practical training and education of the sons and 
daughters of the land. Go to the criminal, the victim of the gut- 
ter and the gallows, and you will find him there, pleading for 
mercy, pleading for justice for those erring men and women, who 
have been sinned against more than having sinned. 

In short, go to every field of honest toil, go to every form and 
avenue of misfortune and crime, and you will find that Horace 
Greeley has been there, earnestly and unselfishly striving to re- 
form, to help and to advance the interests of the individual, the 



570 Horace greeley's life. 

community, society, church, the State and the nation. Upon all 
these he has impressed, with lasting honor, his thoughts and deeds, 
from one ocean to another, and from one zone to another, thus 
making the lesson of his life as broad as the continent, and as 
universal of the climates. 

And now, in consigning the record of his life and labors to his- 
tory, let it go forth to the world, and be inscribed on fame's im- 
mortal temple, that millions of human beings have been made wis- 
er and better by the wisdom and teachings of Horace Greeley. 



PRENTICE TO GREELEY. 571 

GEORGE D. PRENTICE TO HORACE GREELEY 

"I send thee, Greeley, words of cheer, 

Thou bravest, truest, best of men ; 
For I have marked thy strong career, 

As traced by thy own sturdy pen. 
I've seen thy struggles with the foes 

That dared thee to the desperate fight, 
And loved to watch thy goodly blows, 

Dealt for the cause thou deem'st the right. 

" Thou'st dared to stand against the wrong 

"When many faltered by thy side; 
In thy own strength hast dared be strong, 

Nor on another's arm relied. 
Thy own bold thoughts thou'st dared to think, 

Thy own great purposes avowed ; 
And none have ever seen thee shrink 

From the fierce surges of the crowd. 

"Thou, all unaided and alone, 

Didst take thy way in life's young years, 
With no kind hand clasped in thy own, 

No gentle voice to soothe thy tears. 
But thy high heart no power could tame, 

And thou hast never ceased to teei 
"Within thy veins a sacred flame 

That turned thy iron nerves to steel. 

I know that thou art not exempt 

From all the weaknesses of earth ; 
For passion comes to rouse and tempt 

The truest souls of mortal birth. 
But thou hast well fulfilled thy trust, 

In spite of love and hope and fear ; 
And e'en the tempest's thunder-gust 

But clears thy spirit's atmosphere. 

"Thou still art in thy manhood's prime, 

Still foremost 'mid thy fellow-men, 
Though in each year of .all thy time 

Thou hast compressed threescore and tett. 
Oh, may each blessed sympathy, 

Breathed on thee with a tear and sigh, 
A sweet flower in thy pathway be, 

A bright star in thy clear blue sky.' 



APPENDIX. 



THE NOMINATION OF HORACE GREELEY FOR PRESIDENT BY 

THE LIBERAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTION, HELD AT 

CINCLNNATI, MAY THE 1st, 2d, and 3d, 1872. 



Since writing this volume, a new national political movement has been 
inaugurated throughout the country, for the purpose of reforming wanton 
abuses in the official management of the government, of canceling all traces 
of strife between the North and the South growing out of the late civil war, 
and restoring the once revolted States to their natural and equal constitutional 
rights in the Union, and to elevate the national life and character. 

Such were the objects sought to be accomplished by the men who project 
that great political reform in American politics. 

That Mr. Greeley should be a prime actor in such a national movement for 
reform was very natural. In fact it would seem that his action in this new 
political movement, as subsequent events indicate, was destined to prove the 
culminating political act of his long and laborious life, by a complete con- 
summation of all those grand ends for which he has so long and so unselfishly 
toiled. His whole life has been one constant contention in the revolution of 
American ideas. Nothing has been too radical or strange for him to examine 
and support, if approved by his judgment, and nothing too conservative or 
time-honored for him to reject, in defiance of his conscientious convictions. 

His support of the Liberal movement, in utter defiance of the power of 
party discipline and the opposition of a strongly -intrenched, stolid, and stupid 
administration, was in full keeping with every act of his past life. Yet 
having at his command an instrument of power — the Tribune — scarcely less, 
in its influence to control and direct the political opinions and acts of men 
throughout the nation, than the myriad office-holders of the intrenched Presi- 
dent — he at once became the leader and the dictator of the Liberal movement, 
and moulded it into a political Revolution instead of a party bolt. 

His great efforts, since the close of the civil war, to restore a distracted 
country and harmonize an angry people, coupled with the overshadowing 
influence which he gave to the Liberal movement, very naturally made him 
the favorite leader of that movement, as was subsequently demonstrated by 
the wise action of the Cincinnati Convention. 

While it is true that many other good men of the first order of intellect and 
character had given the Liberal movement their hearty support, and many of 
which had friends at the Convention pressing their claims for the nomination 
of President, none had so deep a hold on the hearts of the people as Mr. 
Gkeeley. Everywhere the masses looked upon him as a boon to the nation. 
No man, not even Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln, was ever so universally 
loved and admired by the people as Mr. Gkeeley at the time of his nomina- 
tion. 



574 APPENDIX. 

While other eminent men were strongly and persistently presented to the 
Cincinnati Convention for the nomination by friends of eminence and wide 
inliuence everywhere, the evidence was beyond question, that a large majority 
of those who really meant reform and desired victory regarded Mr. Greeley 
as the people's man, and without doubt the most popular as well as the strong- 
est man in the Republic. He was known of all to be a national man in the 
highest sense of the word. His paper, for well-nigh a generation, had been 
read in almost every part of the Republic, and always advocating the entire 
honest interests of the whole people. He had already visited in person and 
lectured from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Lakes to the 
Gulf. He knew the people, their wants and their interests ; the people knew 
him, knew that he was their friend and benefactor. Hence their universal 
desire to select him for their great captain, whose tall plume should wave in 
righteousness and in glory over the all-conquering hosts of American freemen. 

Knowing full well the popularity of Mr. Greeley and the wishes of the 
people, the delegates to the Cincinnati Convention wisely nominated him amid 
great applause for the Presidency of the Republic, and, with the following plat- 
form of principles adopted by the Convention, and letter of acceptance, he is 
now before the country, the candidate of the Liberal Republican party for the 
Presidency of the United States. And well may the "Citizens of America," 
well may the independent representatives of the people at Cincinnati, be proud 
of the work they did in placing him at the head of the ticket for civil liberty 
and human rights. No previous nomination by any party or revolution of 
parties was ever hailed with so much popular response as the nomination of 
Horace Greeley. Not only were the people and the political affairs of the 
government ripe for the achievement, but the unlimited showers of congratu- 
latory letters and dispatches from every quarter of the broad continent sent 
to Mr. Greeley, and the more powerful expression of the independent press 
of the country, evince his nomination to be the most popular ever made by 
the American people. 

Address and Platform op Principles Adopted by the Liberal 

Republicans in Convention Assembled at Cincinnati, 

May 3, 1872. 

THE ADDRESS. 

The Administration now in power has rendered itself guilty of wanton dis- 
regard of the laws of the land, and usurped powers not granted by the 
Constitution. It has acted as if the laws had binding force only for those who 
are governed, and not for those who govern. It has thus struck a blow at the 
fundamental principles of constitutional government and the liberty of the 
citizen. The President of the United States has openly used the powers and 
opportunities of his high office for the promotion of personal ends. He has 
kept notoriously corrupt and unworthy men in places of power and responsibility 
to the detriment of the public interest. He has used the public service of 
the Government as a machinery of partisan and personal inliuence, and inter- 
fered with tyrannical arrogance in the political affairs of States and municipal- 
ities. He has rewarded with influential and lucrative offices men who had 
acquired his favor by valuable presents ; thus stimulating demoralization of 
our political life by his conspicuous example. He has shown himself deplor- 
ably unequal to the tasks imposed upon him by the necessities of the country, 
and culpably careless of the responsibilities of bis high office. The partisans 
of the Administration, assuming to be the Republican party and controlling 
its organization, have attempted to justify such wrongs and palliate such 
abuses, to the end of maintaining partisan ascendency. They have stood in 
the way of neceisary investigations and indispensable reforms, pretending 
that no serious fault could be found with the present administration of public 



APPENDIX. 575 

affairs ; thus seeking to blind the eyes of the people. They have kept alive 
the passions and resentments of the late civil war, to use them for their own 
advantage. 

They have resorted to arbitrary measures in direct conflict with the organic 
law instead of appealing to the better instincts and latent patriotism of the 
Southern people by restoring to them those rights, the enjoyment of which is 
indispensable for a successful administration of their local affairs, and would 
tend to move a patriotic and hopeful national feeling. They have degraded them- 
selves and the name of their party, once justly entitled to the confidence of 
the nation, by a base sycophancy to the dispenser of executive power and pa- 
tronage unworthy of Republican freemen ; they have sought to stifle the voice 
of just criticism, to stifle the moral sense of the people, and to subjugate 
public opinion by tyrannical party discipline. ' They are striving to maintain 
themselves in authority for selfish ends by an unscrupulous use of the power 
which rightfully belongs to the people, and should be employed only in the 
service of the country. Believing that an organization thus led and controlled 
can no longer be of service to the best interests of the Republic, we have re- 
solved to make an independent appeal to the sober judgment, conscience, and 
patriotism of the American people. 

THE PLATFORM. 

We, the Liberal Republicans of the United States, in National Convention 
assembled at Cincinnati, proclaim the following principles as essential to just 
government : 

First. We recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that 
it is the duty of Government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal 
and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, reli- 
gious or political. 

Second. We pledge ourselves to maintain the union of these States, emanci- 
pation and enfranchisement, and to oppose any reopening of the questions set- 
tled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Ffteenth Amendments to the Consti- 
tution. 

Third. We demand the immediate and absolute removal of all disabilities 
imposed on account of the Rebellion, which was finally subdued seven years 
ago, believing that universal amnesty will result in complete pacification in all 
sections of the country. 

Fourth. Local self-government, with impartial suffrage, will guard the rights 
of all citizens more securely than any centralized power. The public welfare 
requires the supremacy of the civil over the military authority, and freedom 
of person under the protection of the habeas corpus. We demand for the in- 
dividual the largest liberty consistent with public order ; for the State, self- 
government, and for the nation a return to the methods of peace and the 
constitutional limitations of power. 

Fifth. The Civil Service of the Government has become a mere instrument 
of partisan tyranny and personal ambition and an object of selfish greed. It is 
a scandal and reproach upon free institutions and breeds a demoralization dan- 
gerous to the perpetuity of republican government. We therefore regard such 
thorough reforms of the Civil Service as one of the most pressing necessities of 
the hour ; that honesty, capacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid claim 
to public employment ; that the offices of the Government cease to be a matter 
of arbitrary favoritism and patronage, and that public station become again a 
post of honor. To this end it is imperatively required that no President shall 
be a candidate for re-election. 

Siath. We demand a system of Federal taxation which shall not unnecessa- 
rily interfere with the industry of the people, and which shall provide the 
means necessary to pay the expenses of the Government economically adminis- 
tered, the pensions, the interest on the public debt, and a moderate reduction 



576 APPENDIX. 

annually of the principal thereof ; and, recognizing that there are in our midst 
honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respective 
systems of Protection and Free Trade, we remit the discussion of the subject 
to the people in their Congress Districts, and to the decision of Congress thereon, 
wholly free of Executive inteference or dictation. 

Seventh. The public credit must be sacredly maintained, and we denounce 
repudiation in every form and guise. 

Eighth. A speedy return to specie payment is demanded alike by the high- 
est considerations of commercial morality and honest government. 

Ninth. We remember with gratitude the heroism and sacrifices of the sol- 
diers and sailors of the Republic, aud no act of ours shall ever detract from 
their justly-earned fame or the full reward of their patriotism. 

Tenth. We are opposed to all further grants of lands to railroads or other 
corporations. The public domain should be held sacred to actual settlers. 

Eleventh. We hold that it is the duty of the Government, in its inter- 
course with foreign nations, to cultivate the friendship of peace, by treating 
with all on fair and equal terms, regarding it alike dishonorable either to de- 
mand what is not right, or to submit to what is wrong. 

Twelfth. For the promotion and success of these vital principles and the 
support of the candidates nominated by this Convention we invite and cor- 
dially welcome the co-operation of all patriotic citizens, without regard to pre- 
vious afBliations. 

MR. GREELEY'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 

THE OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, May 3, 1872. 

Dear Sir : The National Convention of the Liberal Republicans of the 
United States have instructed the undersigned, President, Vice-President, and 
Secretaries of the Convention, to inform you that you have been nominated 
as the candidate of the Liberal Republicans for the Presidency of the United 
States. We also submit to you the Address and Resolutions unanimously adop- 
ted by the Convention. 

Be pleased to signify to us your acceptance of the platform and the nomi- 
nation, and believe us, very truly yours, 

C. Schurz, President. 

Geo. W. Julian, Vice-President. 

Wm. E. McLean, ) 

John G. Davidson, I Secretaries. 

J. H. Rhodes, ) 

To the Honorable Horace Greeley, New York. 

the nominee's response. 

New York, May 20, 1872. 

Gentlemen: I have chosen not to acknowledge your letter of the 3d 
inst. until I could learn how the work of your Convention was received in all 
parts of our great country, and judge whether that work was approved and 
ratified by the mass of our fellow-citizens. Their response has from day to 
day reached me through telegrams, letters, and the comments of journalists 
independent of official patronage and indifferent to the smiles or frowns of 
power. The number and character of these unconstrained, unpurchased, un- 
solicited utterances satisfy me that the movement which found expression at 
Cincinnati has received the stamp of public approval, and been hailed by a 
majority of our countrymen as the harbinger of a better day for the Republic. 

I do not misinterpret this approval as especially complimentary to myself, 
nor even to the chivalrous and justly-esteemed gentleman with whose name 



APPENDIX. 577 

I thank your Convention for associating mine. I receive and welcome it as a 
spontaneous and deserved tribute to that admirable Platform of principles, 
wherein your Convention so tersely, so lucidly, so forcibly set forth the con- 
victions which impelled and the purposes which guided its course — a Platform 
which, casting behind it the wreck and rubbish of worn-out contentions and 
by -gone feuds, embodies in fit and few words the needs and aspirations of To- 
Day. Though thousands stand ready to condemn your every act, hardly a syl- 
lable of criticism or cavil has been aimed at your Platform, of which the sub- 
stance may be fairly epitomized as follows : 

I. All the political rights and franchises which have been acquired through 
our late bloody convulsion must and shall be guaranteed, maintained, enjoyed, 
respected, evermore. 

II. All the political rights and franchises which have been lost through 
that convulsion should and must be promptly restored and re-established, so 
that there shall be henceforth no proscribed class and no disfranchised caste 
within the limits of our Union, whose long-estranged people shall reunite and 
fraternize upon the broad basis of Universal Amnesty with Impartial 
Suffrage. 

III. That, subject to our solemn constitutional obligation to maintain the 
equal rights of all citizens, our policy should aim at local self-government 
and not at centralization ; that the civil authority should be supreme over the 
military ; that the writ of habeas corpus should be jealously upheld as the 
safeguard of personal freedom ; that the individual citizen should enjoy the 
largest liberty consistent with public order ; and that there shall be no Federal 
subversion of the internal polity of the several States and municipalities, but 
that each shall be left free to enforce the rights and promote the well-being 
of its inhabitants by such means as the judgment of its own people shall pre- 
scribe. 

IV. There shall be a real and not merely a simulated Reform in the Civil 
Service of the Republic ; to which end it is indispensable that the chief 
dispenser of its vast official patronage shall be shielded from the main 
temptation to use his power selfishly by a rule inexorably forbidding and pre- 
cluding his re-election. 

V. That the raising of Revenue, whether by Tariff or otherwise, shall be 
recognized and treated as the People's immediate business, to be shaped and 
directed by them through their Representatives in Congress, whose action 
thereon the President must neither overrule by his veto, attempt to dictate, 
nor presume to punish, by bestowing office only on those who agree with him 
or withdrawing it from those who do not. 

VI. That the Public Lands must be sacredly reserved for occupation and 
acquisition by cultivators, and not recklessly squandered on the projectors of 
Railroads for which our people have no present need, ' and the premature 
construction of which is annually plunging us into deeper and deeper abysses 
of foreign indebtedness. 

VII. That the public faith must at all hazards be maintained, and the 
National credit preserved. 

VIII. That the patriotic devotedness and inestimable services of our fellow- 
citizens who, as soldiers or sailors, upheld the flag and maintained the unity 
of the Republic, shall ever be gratefully remembered and honorably requited. 

IX. That the achievement of these grand purposes of universal beneficence 
is expected and sought at the hands of all who approve them, irrespective of 
past affiliations. 

These propositions, so ably and forcibly presented in the Platform of your 
Convention, have already fixed the attention and commanded the assent of a 
large majority of our countrymen, who joyfully adopt them, as I do, as the 
bases of a true beneficent National Reconstruction — of a New Departure from 
jealousies, strifes, and hates, which have no longer adequate motive or even 
plausible pretext, into an atmosphere of Peace, Fraternity, and Mutual Good 



578 APPENDIX. 

Will. In vain do the drill-sergeants of decaying organizations flourish men- 
acingly their truncheons and angrily insist that the files shall be closed and 
straightened ; in vain do the whippers-in of parties once vital, because rooted 
in the vital needs of the hour, protest against straying and bolting, denounce 
men nowise their inferiors as traitors and renegades, and threaten them with 
infamy and ruin. I am confident that the American People have already made 
your cause their own, fully resolved that their brave hearts and strong arms 
shall bear it on to triumph. In this faith, and with the distinct understand- 
ing that, if elected, I shall be the President not of a party, but of the whole 
people, I accept your nomination, in the confident trust that the masses of 
our countrymen, North and South, are eager to clasp hands across the bloody 
chasm which has too long divided them, forgetting that they have been 
enemies in the joyful consciousness that they are, and must henceforth 
remain, brethren. Yours, gratefully, Horace Greeley. 

To Hon. Carl Shurz, President, Hon. George W. Julian, Vice-President, and 
Messrs. William E. McLean, John G. Davidson, J. H Rhodes, Secre- 
taries of the National Convention of the Liberal Republicans of the 
United States. 

Mr. Greeley's letter of acceptance bears upon every sentence the marks 
of greatness. It has all the vigor, deep, broad, terse, and stirring expression 
of his earnest, generous, and unfettered soul. It is the words of a statesman, 
the words of a patriot, the words of a benefactor, and is a just recognition of 
the abiding faith which the people have in him. And well may the citizens 
of America hail him, in the fullness of his prime, as a genuine man and bene- 
factor, another Trajan destined to rule in national prosperity, and in the con- 
fidence of the people. 



THE BAILING OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

It is deemed advisable, in justification to Mr. Greeley and the liberality 
of his political sentiments, to present to the public, in a substantial way, a 
correct vindication of his sincerity, against the aspersions of malignant foes, 
who have charged him with wrong motives for placing his name on the bail- 
bond of Jefferson Davis. 

Mr. Greeley has more than once said to the public that he was prompted 
to the act by a feeling of forgiveness, and designed it to show and prove the 
spirit of the North toward the South, rather than any personal favor to Mr. 
Davis, or a hope of winning reputation for himself. Strange as the act seemed 
to his political friends, he did it in spite of their persistent remonstrances, and 
with a full knowledge of imperiling his chances for a place in the United 
States Senate. 

The act was wholly his own. He took all the responsibility, and with calm, 
considerate judgment, and a courageous purpose to do good, he showed a for- 
giving spirit toward the South, though temporarily invoking avalanches of en- 
mity from political friends in the North. The following letters from Mr. Davis's 
counsel fully vindicate Mr. Greeley from any affectation and dissimulation, 
which his enemies have falsely charged him with. 

STATEMENT OP CHARLES O'CONOR. 

From The New York World. 

New York, May 14, 1872. 

My Dear Sir : From his capture until the hour within which he was bailed, 
Mr. Jefferson Davis was in military custody. He was then confined as a prison- 



APPENDIX. 579 

er of war for about two years. From the very commencement of this term 
his counsel directed their efforts to procuring his delivery into civil custody, to 
the end that he might have his trial at once or obtain liberation upon bail 
until the Government should think fit to bring on the trial. The counsel for 
Mr. Davis, having first solicited and obtained the consent of Mr. Greeley, 
Mr. Gerrit Smith, and Commodore Vanderbilt, offered to give bail in any sum 
that might be required, and to procure those three gentlemen to unite in the 
bail-bond. This offer was never formally accepted ; but, under the belief that 
it was satisfactory, the counsel of Mr. Davis obtained a writ of habeas corpus, 
and brought Mr. Davis before the court at Richmond. Mr. Evarts attended 
by appointment, and, on the part of the Government, he acquiesced in bailing 
Mr. Davis in $100,000. Conceiving himself bound so to do, the counsel of 
Mr. Davis requested the attendance of the gentlemen in question. Commo- 
dore Vanderbilt's attorney acted for him ; the other two gentlemen appeared 
and signed the bond in person. They had every reason to understand and 
believe that their attendance was absolutely necessary to the release of Mr. 
Davis. The counsel of Mr. Davis supposed it to be so, and he has now no 
reason to think otherwise. I am not aware of any officiousness on the part of 
Mr. Greeley in this business, and never supposed that he did anything beyond 
what he considered essential to the liberation of Mr. Davis. I am, dear sir,, 
yours truly, Ch. O'Conor. 

statement op judge shea. 

New York, May 17, 1872. 

Dear Sir : The manner in which Mr. Greeley became connected as sure- 
ty on the bond given in the case of the United States of America vs. Jefferson 
Davis is simply this : 

Despairing of causing Mr. Davis to be manumitted from military imprison- 
ment by direct means, or having him assured of a speedy trial before a civil 
tribunal, his liberation was a subject for frequent consideration between Mr. 
Greeley and myself chiefly ; but I had similar conferences with other gentle- 
men of like disposition, including Gov. John A. Andrew of Massachusetts, now 
deceased. When it was at last thought prudent by the counsel of Mr. Davis to 
apply for the writ of habeas corpus in his behalf, the personality of the propos- 
ed bail was obviously of controlling importance in the view then apprehended 
of the circumstances likely to influence its success, an opinion the propriety of 
which has since disclosed itself. I asked Mr. Greeley as early as the Spring 
of 1866 to suggest the names of some Northern gentlemen, conspicuous as 
Unionists, who would be inclined to regard such a request favorably, and 
whose public character would vouch that the proceeding on their part was 
kindly meant and directed by a spirit of good-will and magnanimity ; and I 
urged upon him that I had reason to believe that his own name might become 
desirable to effect that object. 

He mentioned the names of two eminent Unionists, and after reflection 
said to me, "If you should find that my name is necessary, you may use it." 
I accepted it as a trust ; as such it was used when it became absolutely neces- 
sary. Mr. Greeley's name was afterwards found to be essential to insure 
the probability of securing the liberation of Mr. Davis ; and then the leading 
counsel for the defense telegraphed to Mr. Greeley. It was in compliance 
with that solicitation and in fulfillment of his conditional promise that he 
came ultimately to Richmond and subscribed the bail-bond in open court ; 
bringing upon himself, but not entirely unforeseen, a flood of ungenerous 
abuse, to which certainly no friend, and I am sure none of the counsel, would 
have recklessly or unnecessarily exposed him. A place on that bail-bond was 
not sought by Horace Greeley ; but he was willing to allow the burden to 
be put on his shoulders, if it were necessary, to accomplish what he and many 
esteemed a private and national benefaction. 

Yours, faithfully, Geo. Shea. 



u There is a kind of physiognomy in the titles 
of books no less than in the faces of 
men, by which a skilful observer 
will know as well what to ex- 
pect from the one as the 
other" — Butlul. 



<& 



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villette. — . do. . do. . do. $1.75 

Hand*Book8 of Society. 

the habits of good society ; nice points of taste, good man- 
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Mrs. A. P. Hill. 

was. hili 's new cookery book, ani receipts. i2mo. cloth, $2.oa 



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LENA RIVERS. — . 


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MORNING glories. — By the Author of "Little Women," etc. 
The Crusoe Library. 

robinson crusoe. — A handsome illus. edition. i2mo. 



SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. — do. 
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WILD LIFE. — 

THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN 

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Miscellaneous Works. 

the debatable land. — By Robert Dale Owen. 12mo. $2.00 

RUTLEDGE. — A novel of remarkable interest and power. 1.50 

THE sutherlands. — do. Author of Rutledge. 1.50 

PRANK WARRLNGTON.- do. do. I.50 

BAINT PHILIP'S.- do do. I.50 

lotjie. — do. do. 1.50 

Fernando de lemos. — A novel By Charles Gayaree. - 2.00 

maurice. — A novel from the French of F. Bechard. - 1.50 

mother goose. — Set, to music, and with illustrations. - 2.00 

brazen GATES. — A new child's book, illustrated. - 1.50 

THE ART OF amusing. — Book of home amusements. - '1.50 

STOLEN waters. — A fascinating novel. Celia Gardner. 1.50 

HEART HUNGRY. — A novel. By Maria J. Westmoreland. 1.75 

the SEVENTn vial. — A new work. Dr. John Cumming. 2 . 00 

THE GREAT TRIBULATION. — new ed. do. 2 . OO 

THE GREAT PREPARATION. — do. do. 2.00 

THE GREAT CONSUMMATION. — do. do. 2.00 

THE LAST WARNING CRY. — do. do. 1 . 50 

ANTIDOTE TO " TnE GATES AJAR." — - - 2$ 

HOUSES NOT MADE WITH HANDS. — Hoppin's Illus. - I.OO 

beauty is power. — An admirable book for ladies. - 1.50 

ITALIAN life AND legends. — By Anna Cora Ritchie. - 1.50 

life and death. — A new American novel. - - 1 . 50 

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ; AND HOW TO KEEP IT. — Davies. 1 . 50 

the cloister and THE hearth. — By Charles Reade. 1.50 

tales from the operas. — The Plots of all the Operas. 1 . 50 

adventures of a honeymoon. — A love-story. . 1.50 

among the pines. — Down South. By Edmund Kirke. 1.50 

my southern friends. — do. do. - 1.50 

DOWN IN TENNESSEE. — do. do. - 1 . 50 

ADRIFT IN DIXIE. — do. do. - 1 . 50 

AMONG THE GUERILLAS. — do. do. - 1 . 50 

A book about lawyers. — Bright and interesting. - 2.00 

A BOOK ABOUT DOCTORS. — do. do. - - 2.00 

woman, loye, and marriage. — By Fred. Saunders. - 1.50 

PRISON LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. — By J. J. Craveii. 1 . 50 

POEMS, BY L. G. THOMAS. — - - - I . 50 

PASTIMES WITH MY LITTLE FRIENDS. — Mrs. Bennett. - I . 50 

THE squibob PAPERS. — A comic book. John Phoenix. - 1.50 

cousin paul. — A new American novel. - - 1.75 

J ARGAL. — A novel from the French of Victor Hugo. - 1.75 

CLAUDE GUEUX. — do. do. do. - I . 50 

LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO.— do do. - 2.00 

CHRISTMAS HOLLY. — By Marion Harland, Illustrated. - 1 . 50 

THE RUSSIAN ball. — An illustrated satirical Poem. - .25 

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THE PRINCE OF KASHNA. — Edited by R. B. Kimball. - 1 . 75 



PUBLISHED BY O. W. CARLETON & CO. 



miscellaneous Works. 
k lost life. — A novel by Emily H. Moore 
obown jewels. — do. Mrs. Emma L. Moffett 

adrift with a vengeance. — Kinahan Cornwallis. 
the franco-Prussian war in 1870. — By M. D. Landoa 
dream mdsic. — Poems by Frederic Rowland Marvin. 
rambles in cuba. — By an American Lady. 
bkhind the scenes, in the White House. — Keckley. 
vachtman's primer. — For Amateur Sailors. — Warren 
KtRAL architecture. — By M. Field. With illustrations 
treatise on deafness. — By Dr. E. B. Lighthill 
women and theatres. — A new book, by Olive Logan 
Warwick. — A new novel by Mansfield Tracy Walworth 
sibyl huntington. — A novel by Mrs. J. C. R. Dorr. 
living writers of the south. — By Prof. Davidson 
strange visitors. — A book from the Spirit World. 
up broadwat, and its Sequel. — A story by Eleanor Kirk 
military record, of Appointments in the U.S. Army 
honor bright. — A new American novel. 

MALBROOK. do. do. do. 

guilty or not guilty. — do. do. 

Robert greatiiouse. — A new novel by John F. Swift 

the golden cross, and poems by Irving Van Wart, jr 

vthaliah. — A new novel by Joseph H. Greene, jr. 

regina, and other poems. — By Eliza Cruger. 

the wickedest woman in new york. — By C. H. Webb 

montalban. — A new American novel. 

mademoiselle merquem. — A novel by George Sand 

the impending crisis of the south. — By H. R. Helper 

kojoque — A Question for a Continent. — do. 

paris in 1867. — By Henry Morfoi d. 

the bishop's son. — A novel by Alic3 Cary. 

cruise of the Alabama and sumter. — ByCapt. Semmes 

helen courtenay. — A novel, author " Vernon Grove.' 

bouvenirs of travel. — By Madame OctaviaW. LeVert 

vanquished. — A novel by Agnes Leonard. 

will-o'-the-wisp. — A child's book, from the German 

four oaks. — A novel by Kamba Thorpe. 

the Christmas font. — A child's book, by M. J. Holmes 

POEMS, BY SARAH T. BOLTON. 

mary brandegee — A novel by Cuyler Pine 

RENSflAWE. do. do. 

mount calvary. — By Matthew Hale Smith 
promktheus in Atlantis. — A prophecy. 
titan AGONISTK8. — An American novel. 



$1.50 

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$2.0C 
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[.50 

•75 

'•75 
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.50 
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$200 
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